Mumbai: The Maharashtra government is trying hard to conserve electricity, but Mumbaikars are having to sweat it out because of the frequent power cuts. CNN-IBN went around the city to find out what locals are doing to ensure the cuts don't hit their business.
Mumbai hotelier Santosh Shetty is a worried man. Impending power cuts and the state diktat to cut down usage leaves him with the prospect of an empty dining hall.
"The power situation is already very bad. There are at least two hours of power-cut even now and in our business even a 10 minutes power cut means losing customers besides, we have cold storages with perishables that need a continuous supply of electricity," says Santosh.
Businessmen like Santosh as well as households are not wiling to take chances with the power supply and the rush for generators is bringing a smile to the face of dealers selling the products.
"The shortage of power is leading everyone from hotels to restaurants to households to buy generators and invertors. The situation is worse in the suburbs than in the city, " Generator Supplier A.C. Shah says.
Generators are available in the range between Rs 22,000 to Rs one lakh and popular brands in the market are Kirloskar, Siemens, Honda, Crompton as well as Elimax. A half-kg watt generator could last up to 4-5 hours for a small business unit. But some others feel the need in the city is not so important.
There are both believers and sceptics but with noises about power cuts getting louder in Mumbai, residents are unsure about how to deal with the unknown devil called load-shedding.
The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission has asked Mumbaikars to cut their power consumption by 20 per cent from the past year.
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