Staff Reporter :
Frequent power outage and voltage fluctuation not only making public life intolerable but also causing huge damages to electronic appliances, the consumers alleged.
They said people are experiencing four to six power cuts a day with a duration 30 to 40 minutes in capital Dhaka and other cities while eight to ten times in rural areas since mid of March with the starting of summer weather.
Many complained of damaging their television and refrigerators as well as other electronic household appliances that these are not functioning properly due to lower voltage of electricity.
Dwellers in many areas of Dhaka city, including Mirpur-10, Kalshi, Sheorapara, Farmgate, Kakrail, Shantinagar, Rampura, Badda, Gulshan, Baridhara, and in Tongi, Narayanganj and Chattagram have complained of short supply of water following power outage.
Water supply authorities said, the water pumps could not run for enough time to ensure water supply in whole areas of the capital and other cities due to power outage.
Ayesha Begum of Badda in Dhaka alleged that they are witnessing four to six times power cuts a day for the last three weeks.
Jesmin Akter, a resident of Narayanganj Sadar said that they are experiencing power cuts with an interval of 60-90 minutes and the each power cut continued for up to two hours.
Arifa Begum, a medical student who lives in Chattagram city, said that they are suffering the worst as the frequency of power cuts has increased 8-10 times a day.
The power supply situation in the rest of the country is more or less similar with power cuts by four to five times in the urban areas while 10-12 times in the rural areas a day.
The Rural Electrification Board (REB) received 4,700MW power supply on an average during peak hours against its demand of about 5,300MW in the past four weeks, according to its recent report.
Dhaka Power Distribution Company Managing Director Bikash Dewan, however, said that they are receiving electricity supply as per the demand.
In the past week, the distribution company received more than 1,400MW which was estimated as the highest demand in its distribution areas covering a major part of Dhaka city and entire Narayanganj city.
Officials concerned attributed the public sufferings for frequent power cuts to shortage of gas supplies to the power plants and distribution networks vulnerable to nor’wester.
They said that the Power Development Board (PDB), the country’s single buyer of greed feeding electricity, was able to supply about 9,800MW during peak hours, from 6:00pm to 12:00am, against the demand for 11,000MW with the existing gas supplies at the rate of about 26.90 million cubic metres per day.
PDB Chairman Khaled Mahmud told The New Nation yesterday that the electricity supply situation would improve soon as the government increased gas supplies diverting from the fertiliser factories.
He said that the power board has prepared to generate 11,000MW from next month (May).
A recent estimate of power board, however, showed that the power demand would shoot up to 12,500MW from May, a power board official said.
The power board also supplies electricity to the consumers in the city corporations and municipal areas in Chattagram, Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions.
Asked about power board’s distribution situation, Khaled said that the distribution utilities had to stop power supply to an area on safety grounds whenever it seemed nor’wester might hit the area causing power cables to be snapped by broken branches of trees.
Dhaka Power Distribution Company Managing Director Bikash Dewan said that banners and other advertising materials often snapped overhead power distribution lines.
He said that projects to develop underground power distribution networks in his areas are under implementation.
At a meeting recently, Power Division Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus asked the power distribution utilities to cut off all branches of trees grown above or parallel to the power supply lines in the next 15 days, said officials.
