Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Industrial units across the country are facing a major power cut and gas crisis, which is affecting their production, insiders said.
They said, the continued energy crisis has forced most industrial units to curtail their production significantly causing huge losses to the industrial entrepreneurs, insiders said.
“Industrial units are now facing an acute gas and power crisis forcing them to shed production to the extent of 25-30 per cent,” Hossain Khaled, President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) told The New Nation (NN) on Monday.
He added that industrial units located in major clusters in general had been hit hard by the power disruption and short supply of gas.
“The industrial sector has been severely affected by the ongoing energy crisis. Such a situation forced the industrial entrepreneurs to depend heavily on captive power generation which in turn is increasing the cost of production,” he noted.
Hossain Khaled further said that setting up manufacturing units by new entrepreneurs has become impossible here due to lack of fresh gas and
electricity connections. “No new investment has come in the sector in the last two years as the authorities concerned remained lethargic in giving new gas and electricity connections to the industrial units”.
“Power and energy is the key for boosting factory production. If the manufacturing units cannot be provided with uninterrupted power and energy, it will severely affect the country’s economic activities and job creation,” he added.
Expressing frustration at the country’s prevailing energy situation, he said, entrepreneurs have set up their industries taking bank loans. Many of them have already become bank defaulters due to low factory output resulted from energy crunch.
To fight against the energy crunch, the DCCI leader has also requested the government for ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply to the industrial units.
“Although the government has increased the electricity generation capacity, the industrial units are yet to get its’ uninterrupted supply. Apart from this, a gas crisis also prevails there hitting the factory production,” Salam Murshedy, President of the Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) told The NN.
He said, many industrial units are sitting idle due to lack of gas and electricity connection. If they are prevented from getting such privilege, the national economy will suffer a potential setback.
Meanwhile, leaders of the country’s leading trade bodies will sit in an emergency meeting with the Prime Minister’s Energy Adviser Dr Toufic Elahi to be held today (Wednesday) in the wake of mounting energy crisis in the industrial sector.
“We will convey our pain to the energy adviser at the meeting,” Jahangir Alamin, a former President of Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association (BTMA) told The NN. He also said that leaders of the trade bodies will also discuss the matter of fresh gas and electricity connections for the industries.
“We will request the energy adviser to give gas connections to the BTMA member factories which have earlier issued demand notes in favour Titas,” he added.
Industrial units across the country are facing a major power cut and gas crisis, which is affecting their production, insiders said.
They said, the continued energy crisis has forced most industrial units to curtail their production significantly causing huge losses to the industrial entrepreneurs, insiders said.
“Industrial units are now facing an acute gas and power crisis forcing them to shed production to the extent of 25-30 per cent,” Hossain Khaled, President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) told The New Nation (NN) on Monday.
He added that industrial units located in major clusters in general had been hit hard by the power disruption and short supply of gas.
“The industrial sector has been severely affected by the ongoing energy crisis. Such a situation forced the industrial entrepreneurs to depend heavily on captive power generation which in turn is increasing the cost of production,” he noted.
Hossain Khaled further said that setting up manufacturing units by new entrepreneurs has become impossible here due to lack of fresh gas and
electricity connections. “No new investment has come in the sector in the last two years as the authorities concerned remained lethargic in giving new gas and electricity connections to the industrial units”.
“Power and energy is the key for boosting factory production. If the manufacturing units cannot be provided with uninterrupted power and energy, it will severely affect the country’s economic activities and job creation,” he added.
Expressing frustration at the country’s prevailing energy situation, he said, entrepreneurs have set up their industries taking bank loans. Many of them have already become bank defaulters due to low factory output resulted from energy crunch.
To fight against the energy crunch, the DCCI leader has also requested the government for ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply to the industrial units.
“Although the government has increased the electricity generation capacity, the industrial units are yet to get its’ uninterrupted supply. Apart from this, a gas crisis also prevails there hitting the factory production,” Salam Murshedy, President of the Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) told The NN.
He said, many industrial units are sitting idle due to lack of gas and electricity connection. If they are prevented from getting such privilege, the national economy will suffer a potential setback.
Meanwhile, leaders of the country’s leading trade bodies will sit in an emergency meeting with the Prime Minister’s Energy Adviser Dr Toufic Elahi to be held today (Wednesday) in the wake of mounting energy crisis in the industrial sector.
“We will convey our pain to the energy adviser at the meeting,” Jahangir Alamin, a former President of Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association (BTMA) told The NN. He also said that leaders of the trade bodies will also discuss the matter of fresh gas and electricity connections for the industries.
“We will request the energy adviser to give gas connections to the BTMA member factories which have earlier issued demand notes in favour Titas,” he added.
