Nearly 1.5 million residents of Keraniganj, Dohar and Nababganj areas around the capital have been out of electricity since Tuesday night when a fire broke out at Hasnabad Power House in Narayanganj. The fire that broke out at 7:45pm raged for over half-an-hour before it could be brought under control, cutting off electricity supply to the three upazilas and some areas of Mushiganj’s Shirajdikhan.  Irrigation pumps and small factories in the areas have remained inoperative.
“The food products we had in the fridges are all rotting. We’ve to throw them out,” Arifur Rahman Mintu, a resident of Keraniganj’s Ati Bazaar, told the news agency.
Medical services at local hospitals are being maintained with the help of generators. Kolatia Modern Hospital officials said that they are being forced to spend Tk 8,000 to keep two generators running round the clock.
“No one is ready to say when power supply will be restored,” Sayedul Haque Khan Dablu, a resident of Nababganj’s Algichar area told.
“The fire caused extensive damage. We’re trying to fix it fast,” Moin Uddin told. “We’re hoping to restore the supply on Thursday.”
Keraniganj Model Police Station’s Assistant Sub-Inspector Shoheb Ali Khandoker told said: “The residents are in dark since Tuesday. But law and order is good.” However, Nababganj Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge Masud Karim admitted that they are having problems maintaining law and order because of the outage.