SIALKOT, July 14: As loadshedding and outages continue to haunt the people, the business community is seriously considering the proposal to adopt the solar energy system in their factories.

Sick of prolonged electricity crisis, the industrialists say the solar energy in factories remains the only answer to the financial crunch they have been facing.

Speaking to newsmen here on Friday, they confirmed: “We are working on the proposal of adopting the solar energy system in our factories to avert recurring threats of prolonged power outages and save our export-oriented cottage industries from financial losses.”

It would help them produce world-class export items besides reducing the cost of production, enabling the exporters to return to the international trade and export markets to compete with China, India, Thailand and Taiwan. The facility would be introduced on a self-help basis.

They urged President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to allow duty-free import of the technology.

Meanwhile, leading exporter Inam Subhani Hilbro told journalists that his company was importing the solar energy AC split units and CPUs from China at initial stage for Sialkot’s large market of electronics.

He said the introduction of the solar energy electronics in houses, factories, offices and other places would reduce power tariffs. He said it would be the first such initiative in Sialkot which would meet the demand of solar energy electronics.

Meanwhile, electricity supply remained suspended for eight consecutive hours in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial, Pasrur, Satrah, Chawinda, Badiana and their surrounding areas.

TRADE LOSS: The persistent loadshedding has hit more than 80 per cent of the trade in Sialkot - the city of exports.

According to Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s departmental committee on Wapda chief Mian Muhammad Anwar, foreign customers had cancelled their hundreds of import orders during the last one month.

He said 18- to 20-hour daily loadshedding had rendered hundreds of industrial workers jobless.

In Daska, the farm machinery industry had been badly hit by unscheduled loadshedding as all units remained closed for the fourth consecutive day in the city and its outskirts.

Daska Engineering and Industrial Association information secretary Shahid Nadeem Mughal has criticised Gepco officials for what he called “business killing” loadshedding.

SCCI president Dr Nauman Idrees Butt and others have urged the federal government to take serious notice of the situation.

Despite repeated assurances made by the officials to the Sialkot business community, the Gepco has yet to give any schedule of loadshedding to them.