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Title: Power Crisis Grave

Fund Shortage Hampers Development Work

Staff Reporter April 8, 2000

Acute loadshedding continued in the capital city on Saturday making public life miserable.

Many areas in the city remained without power for several hours on Saturday night.

The worst affected areas include Segunbagicha, Purana Paltan, Topkhana, Bijoynagar, Kakrail, Shantinagar, Motijheel, Hatirpool, Muhammedpur, Hazaribag, Goran, Basaboo, Rampura, Badda, Lalmatia, Khilgaon, Gopibag and different places in the old part of the city.

Loadshedding would not be less than 200 MW of power in the capital city and its adjoining area on Saturday.

It led to disruption of water supply in many areas in the city.

The residents of Sutrapur Thana are the worst sufferers, said some local people, in Ganderia area.

Meanwhile, competent sources said that shortage of power generation to cope with the growing demand and faulty transmission lines are the key causes for electricity hazards in the city.

Sources said that transformers installed in different power stations as well as transmission lines need overhauling for smooth power supply. But financial constraint hampers the work, sources said.

According to the information available, power crisis has assumed an alarming form outside the capital city including port city of Chittagong and other divisional headquarters in the country. The port city of Chittagong continued to experience massive load shedding over the past several days. Electricity failure affected industrial production in different industrial belts in the country.

Reports from different areas said that the performance of Rural Electrification Board (REB) to provide power to the remote areas was totally frustrating.

The remote areas mostly remain without power for about almost 18 hours a day, it is learnt.

Official sources said that the policymakers were actively considering various measures for improving the power situation. They also acknowledged the fact that development work in the power sector was being hampered due to financial constraints.

It would certainly ease financial burden if system loss could be reduced to a considerable extent, said informed circles adding system loss now stands at 30 percent.

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 08, 2000