NEW DELHI The widening gap between power demand and supply in India is expected to deepen an industrial slowdown in 2001, a top industry body warned Monday.

The industrially advanced states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are expected to bear "the brunt of the shortage," the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) said in an official release, AFP reported.

According to ASSOCHAM, industrial production between April and August 2000 declined to 5.3 percent, compared to 6.2 percent in the same 1999 period.

"Inordinate delays" in commissioning new power projects were also affecting industrial production.

The industrial chamber suggested the immediate implementation of short gestation power projects and the renovation and refurbishment of existing thermal and hydropower stations to maximize generation. India needs an estimated 252 billion dollars of investment in the next decade to generate an additional 100,000 megawatts of power to meet its shortfall. Of India's total generation capacity, nearly a fifth is lost in transmission, distribution and large scale theft. The assocham study urged the strengthening of power transmission and distribution systems as well as tapping India's hydropower potential to generate 100,000 megawatts of power in the next five years.