Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources has taken up a project to provide electricity facilities to all Rohingya households in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps.
Rural Electrification Board (REB), a state-owned agency responsible for electrifying rural Bangladesh, will implement the project at an estimated cost of Tk 98.31 crore.
Of the total cost, the government of Bangladesh will bear Tk 14.74 crore, the REB Tk 1.24 crore and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Tk 81.73 crore.
The project titled, “Electrification for the Displaced Myanmar Citizens,” would be implemented in the next two years (from July 2018 to 30 June, 2020).
“All Rohingya families now living in Teknaf and Ukhiya upazilas will be brought under the electricity coverage. REB has already prepared
a Development Project Profile (DPP) and sent it to the Planning Commission for its approval,” an REB official told The New Nation on Friday.
Principal components of the projects are installation of 50km electricity line (11kv), one 33/11kv substation, street lights (200), nano grid solar home systems (50), solar power backed LED lights (4000), replacement of 80/120 MVA transformers from the existing 24/31 MVA and setting up capacitor bank (11 sets).
“The project has been taken up for improving livelihood of Rohingya households in Cox’s Bazar camps. The government has provided them shelter on humanitarian ground. Now, it has been working hard to meet the basic needs of huge Rohingya population of about one million,” said the REB official.
He added that the international aid agencies and donors had also extended their supports to the government, which initiated the electrification project with the help of ADB.
The Rohingya people are an ethnic group from Myanmar, majority being the Muslims. They were denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982 and fleeing escalating violence perpetrated by the army.
Bangladesh has hosted Rohingya refugees for three decades, there are a total 918,936 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar (as of 21 June, 2018).
More than 700,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State since August last year, when the Myanmar army launched a renewed crackdown using fake attacks on police posts and an army base by ARSA militants.
Most of the new arrivals to Bangladesh are living in makeshift shelters outside two United Nations-administered refugee camps in Teknaf and Ukhiya, along with hundreds of thousands of other Rohingyas who have already been there after fleeing previous spates of violence.
Many of those fleeing have complained of murder and rape by Myanmar’s security forces inside Rakhine State.
Bangladesh government has already given food, shelter, sanitation, medicare and water to the large number of displaced Rohingya population setting a rare example in the world.
The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources has taken up a project to provide electricity facilities to all Rohingya households in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps.
Rural Electrification Board (REB), a state-owned agency responsible for electrifying rural Bangladesh, will implement the project at an estimated cost of Tk 98.31 crore.
Of the total cost, the government of Bangladesh will bear Tk 14.74 crore, the REB Tk 1.24 crore and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Tk 81.73 crore.
The project titled, “Electrification for the Displaced Myanmar Citizens,” would be implemented in the next two years (from July 2018 to 30 June, 2020).
“All Rohingya families now living in Teknaf and Ukhiya upazilas will be brought under the electricity coverage. REB has already prepared
a Development Project Profile (DPP) and sent it to the Planning Commission for its approval,” an REB official told The New Nation on Friday.
Principal components of the projects are installation of 50km electricity line (11kv), one 33/11kv substation, street lights (200), nano grid solar home systems (50), solar power backed LED lights (4000), replacement of 80/120 MVA transformers from the existing 24/31 MVA and setting up capacitor bank (11 sets).
“The project has been taken up for improving livelihood of Rohingya households in Cox’s Bazar camps. The government has provided them shelter on humanitarian ground. Now, it has been working hard to meet the basic needs of huge Rohingya population of about one million,” said the REB official.
He added that the international aid agencies and donors had also extended their supports to the government, which initiated the electrification project with the help of ADB.
The Rohingya people are an ethnic group from Myanmar, majority being the Muslims. They were denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982 and fleeing escalating violence perpetrated by the army.
Bangladesh has hosted Rohingya refugees for three decades, there are a total 918,936 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar (as of 21 June, 2018).
More than 700,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State since August last year, when the Myanmar army launched a renewed crackdown using fake attacks on police posts and an army base by ARSA militants.
Most of the new arrivals to Bangladesh are living in makeshift shelters outside two United Nations-administered refugee camps in Teknaf and Ukhiya, along with hundreds of thousands of other Rohingyas who have already been there after fleeing previous spates of violence.
Many of those fleeing have complained of murder and rape by Myanmar’s security forces inside Rakhine State.
Bangladesh government has already given food, shelter, sanitation, medicare and water to the large number of displaced Rohingya population setting a rare example in the world.
