Shamim Jahangir
     The duration of power outage has increased to 12-16 hours a day, heightening the sufferings of the people all-over the country, including the Dhaka city amid sweltering summer heat.

On Monday, the load-shedding of electricity in Dhaka city was more than 700 mega watt as against the requirement of 1,100MW, according to official of Bangladesh Power Development Board.

The power cut on the day exceeded 2,700MW across the country, the official said.

“We have been supplied only 700MW electricity against the requirement of nearly 1,100MW today,” Dhaka Power Distribution Company managing director Abdus Sobhan told daily sun on Monday.

The state-owned company enforced nearly 360MW load-shedding on the day, he said.

It received several complaints from the consumers due to frequent power outage, “But we have no other way than forcing load-shedding due to the supply shortage.”

The DPDC is responsible for supplying electricity to Dhanmondi, Newmarket, Shamoly, Demra, Ittefaq intersection, Wari, Jatrabari, a section of Mirpur and some others parts of the city.

Besides, Dhaka Elec-tric Supply Company (DESCO) Limited is responsible for supplying electricity at Uttara, Tangi, diplomatic zone of Baridhara, Gulshan, Banani and Mirpur intersection. DESCO managing director M Manjur Rahman said that the company had been supplying only 250MW electricity against the demand of 600MW.

He described the present electricity supply situation as ‘worsening’ one.

The Rural Electrification Board (REB) received only 1302MW of electricity against the requirement of 2529MW to over 81 lakh consumers.

REB chairman Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam said the government is concentrating on supply of electricity to ensure irrigation for Boro rice.

In Rajshahi, the people are receiving only eight hours of electricity which is fixed for Boro irrigation.

“We have got electricity from 11:00pm to 7:00am,” Abu Raihan, resident of Naogaon told daily sun.

The government has already diverted gas to power plants from fertilizer factories to increase electricity generation. But the sudden fire incident at Rawzan power plant having capacity of 420 MW dropped electricity generation, BPDB official said.

The Power Division has intensified mobile court drives as a part of the government’s power staggering programme to supply electricity, said DPDC Managing director Abdus Sobhan.