Powerless days are here again with the hydel reservoirs failing to get enough water during the monsoon. The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the KSEB proposal to introduce one-hour loadshedding in the state.
The loadshedding will come into effect from Thursday evening, according to KSEB officials.
The power utility will seek the approval of the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission and the sanction is expected to be issued on Thursday itself.
Briefing the media, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that to reduce the hardship to the consumers, load-shedding would be for half- an- hour each in the morning and evening.
He said a very serious situation prevailed in the power sector. A decision on introducing loadshedding for industries would be worked out later by the KSEB. In the given situation, there was no option but to implement load- shedding.
The Cabinet discussed the follow-up steps to be taken to help realise the projects proposed in the ‘Emerging Kerala ’ summit. V Somasundaram, Additional Chief Secretary, made a presentation and submitted a report to the Cabinet. An Investment Promotion Council with the Chief Minister as chairman will be set up to expedite the implementation of the projects. Two other bodies, Investment Promotion Board comprising industrialists from the state with proven record and expertise and Investment Clearance Council with the Chief Minister as Chairman, will also be formed.
The Industries Department will be asked to organise five seminars in the coming months on various topics.
In November, a seminar on electronic hardware industries will be held in Kochi. In December, a seminar on food and agroprocessing will be organised. A seminar on life sciences will be conducted in January, 2013. A seminar on petrochemical industries in February and another on small and medium enterprises will also be held.
Those delegates who have evinced interest in making investments in these sectors will be invited to attend the seminars.
Major industrialists also will be made special invitees to these seminars.
All other government departments will be asked to consider conducting similar seminars in the months to come. He said countries which had expressed interest in investing in the state also would be invited to the seminars.
The Chief Minister said CII president Adi Godrej had offered to set up a National Centre of Excellence at the inaugural of the ‘Emerging Kerala’. The government has decided to allot 50 cents of land for this at Kalamassery on the premises of Kerala Institute of Entrepreneurship Development.