Electricity goes to Sandwip today

The power division is set to electrify all home of the inhabitants of Sandwip, a remote island of the country, today (Wednesday) following the inaugural of "Development of Electric Supply System in Chattogram region" by the Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the line minister of the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

Along with this project Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will formally inaugurate six power projects through video conference at her official residence Ganobhaban today.Of them, four plants have been built by independent power producers - 50.20MW furnace oil-based plant in Natore, 102MW in Narayanganj, 52.50MW in Munshiganj and gas-based 108MW in Narsingdi.

"In 2018, the Power Division started supplying power through only around 400 connections in the island on a limited scale using oil-run generators however, the authorities have connected Sandwip Island in the Bay of Bengal with the national power grid using submarine cable," Power Division official told the Daily Observer on Monday.

As part of developing power distribution system in Chattogram, a 15-kilometre cable has been set up under the sea from Sitakunda to Sandwip. ZTT, a Chinese construction firms had been implementing the project from December 2017. However, the authority set up a 80 kilometers sub marine cables beneath the Bay of Bengal at a cost of Tk 144 crore. PDB sources said, in the first phase 10 megawatts electricity will be supplied per day among 10 thousand people of Sandwip from December.

Sources said a total of 60 megawatts electricity will be able to transmit by the two cables in next 50 years. PDB now supplies one megawatt electricity among 2,000 subscribers from 6 pm to 12 PM in some parts of Sandwip Island through a generator and solar panels. "We are set to give 10 per cent connections to 12 Upazillas and make an production announcement of total 1,057 MW of electricity from six new plants," State Minister for power, Energy and Mineral Resources said. We are set to implement the Prime Minister's vision in power sector, however, it is also the reflection of the pledge Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made during her Sandwip visit in 2012, he said.

Of those Sirajganj -400 MW, Orion's- 100 MW, Desh energy's-200 MW, Midland East Power's 150 MW were under priority project. "The government has taken a range of initiatives to increase power generation, transmission and distribution capacity for electricity supply across the country," State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid said.

Power generation reached 17,900MW, including captive generation, from 3,268MW in 2009 and the government has prioritised the development of the sector considering its importance in the overall development of the country.
The government has a target to generate 20,000MW electricity as part of the objective to supply power to all citizens within 2021.