Anisul Islam Noor :
Lakhs of people who have applied for power connections in the country’s rural areas have been waiting for months as they cannot get the connections in absence of distribution lines. . The companies cannot supply electricity as the distribution lines were not yet developed proportionately to the generation capacity.
As a result, at least over seven lakh applications for power connections from five state-run power distribution companies are lying pending of the total pending applications 94.56 per cent of the people are in the rural areas, Power Development
Board (PDB) sources said.
The new connections have been kept on hold in keeping with the government policy of limiting supply within the generation capacity during the summer, he said adding the number of pending applicants has reached 7.30 lakh.
The unavoidable use of fans and air-conditioners significantly push up the demand for electricity from March to September, he said.
The government plans to install new distribution lines within its capacity so that those interested to get new connections could get supply of electricity without waiting for months, power secretary Monwar Islam said.
The five distribution companies would require to supply an additional 1400MW electricity if they intend to provide new connections to all those who have submitted applications, an official of Power Development Board (PDB) said.
Overloading of rural transformers is a handy issue used by the authorities to camouflage the government decision to withhold new connections in the countryside, according to a well placed source of Rural Electrification Board (REB).
Out of 6,65,241 transformers installed in the countryside 89,084 were overloaded by February last, he said. The overloading of transformer was blamed for frequent power outages in the peak hours in the rural areas. There has so far been no concrete step for increasing the capacities of the transformers, resulting in frequent disruption in power supply in the countrywide for days together.
When asked, an REB official said that the policy of not providing new connections prompted many applicants to take illegal connections further aggravating the problem of overloading. It also deprives Palli Bidyut Samities from revenue earnings, he said.
REB chairman Moin Uddin could not be reached despite repeated attempts for his comment on the issue.
According to power division report, DESCO has the second highest pending applications: 33,903, The WZPDC has 3,546 pending applications, DPDC 3,171 and PDB 1,667 till February last.
In the previous term, the Awami League-led government slapped bans on new power connections at different times since 2009. And in 2011, the government announced a conditional policy to provide new connection only to solar panel users to slow down the growth of demand for electricity.
The five companies which are responsible for giving power connections are Rural Electrification Board, Power Development Board, West Zone Power Distribution Company, Dhaka Electric Supply Company and Dhaka Power Distribution Company.
Lakhs of people who have applied for power connections in the country’s rural areas have been waiting for months as they cannot get the connections in absence of distribution lines. . The companies cannot supply electricity as the distribution lines were not yet developed proportionately to the generation capacity.
As a result, at least over seven lakh applications for power connections from five state-run power distribution companies are lying pending of the total pending applications 94.56 per cent of the people are in the rural areas, Power Development
Board (PDB) sources said.
The new connections have been kept on hold in keeping with the government policy of limiting supply within the generation capacity during the summer, he said adding the number of pending applicants has reached 7.30 lakh.
The unavoidable use of fans and air-conditioners significantly push up the demand for electricity from March to September, he said.
The government plans to install new distribution lines within its capacity so that those interested to get new connections could get supply of electricity without waiting for months, power secretary Monwar Islam said.
The five distribution companies would require to supply an additional 1400MW electricity if they intend to provide new connections to all those who have submitted applications, an official of Power Development Board (PDB) said.
Overloading of rural transformers is a handy issue used by the authorities to camouflage the government decision to withhold new connections in the countryside, according to a well placed source of Rural Electrification Board (REB).
Out of 6,65,241 transformers installed in the countryside 89,084 were overloaded by February last, he said. The overloading of transformer was blamed for frequent power outages in the peak hours in the rural areas. There has so far been no concrete step for increasing the capacities of the transformers, resulting in frequent disruption in power supply in the countrywide for days together.
When asked, an REB official said that the policy of not providing new connections prompted many applicants to take illegal connections further aggravating the problem of overloading. It also deprives Palli Bidyut Samities from revenue earnings, he said.
REB chairman Moin Uddin could not be reached despite repeated attempts for his comment on the issue.
According to power division report, DESCO has the second highest pending applications: 33,903, The WZPDC has 3,546 pending applications, DPDC 3,171 and PDB 1,667 till February last.
In the previous term, the Awami League-led government slapped bans on new power connections at different times since 2009. And in 2011, the government announced a conditional policy to provide new connection only to solar panel users to slow down the growth of demand for electricity.
The five companies which are responsible for giving power connections are Rural Electrification Board, Power Development Board, West Zone Power Distribution Company, Dhaka Electric Supply Company and Dhaka Power Distribution Company.
