HYDERABAD: The power crisis gripping the state due to the Telangana Sakala Janula Samme has gone from bad to worse and the government responded by extending the power cut in the state capital from two hours to four from Monday.It’s much worse elsewhere in the state: Transco has increased power cuts in district headquarters from four hours to six and from six hours to eight in municipal corporations, municipalities and mandal headquarters.Outages to industry too have been made longer.Industrial units in the state will henceforth have a two-day power holiday in a week henceforth, up from one day until now.Added to the one-day power holiday already existing prior to the strike, that would make it a three-day power holiday for industry in the state.The new regimen will come into effect from October 5.This apart, the four-hour peak time power cut now in force for industry -- 6.30 p.m to 10.30 p.m -- will continue.As far as the farm sector is concerned, desperate efforts are being made to ensure supply of power for a minimum of six hours a day."Our efforts are to save the standing crop,” APTransco managing director Ajay Jain told Express.The state is beset by a steep increas in the demand for power and a steep fall in power generation at the same time. “On Saturday, the demand for power was 272 million units, but we could supply 230 million units only,” Jain said.The state government has already requested the Union Ministry of Power to advise the Power Grid Corporation to enhance the corridor availability on a round-the-clock basis to enable Andhra Pradesh discoms to procure additional quantity of power from outside the southern region.With the miners of Singareni Collieries on strike, coal stocks at thermal power stations are depleting fast.There has been a loss of 60 lakh tonnes of coal production in the collieries since September 13 and thermal power stations have had to cut generation.
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