Hyderabad: The four breweries at Sangareddy are run by United Breweries, SABMiller, Crown Beers and Carlsberg and control nearly 97 per cent of the market in the state.
“The government had issued notices on October 15 asking us to look for alternatives. It promised to relax WALTA norms to dig borewells,” said Mr M. Kameshwar Rao, president of the Telangana Breweries Association.
Mr Rao said borewells and water tankers can never be an alternative for Singur water as the breweries need 44 lakh litres per day cannot be met. “It is tough to meet even 60 per cent of our requirement with these alternatives,” he said.
Excise commissioner R.V. Chandravadan said the government was aware of the problem. “Since meeting drinking water needs of people is top priority, the government has asked them to look for other alternatives like borewells, water tankers. For this WALTA has to be relaxed and this is under consideration.”
Most of breweries in TS have units in other states and the government is considering allowing them to import similar brands to overcome the shortage. But breweries say it’s not feasible as the import fee had been increased three-fold.
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