Power generation, distribution cos come under fire

The Parliamentary watchdog on Wednesday has come down heavily on power generation and distribution companies for failing to help in meeting government's commitment to supply uninterrupted electricity, despite the government's huge investments for developing the power sector.
"We are facing serious criticism from the grassroots level as we failed to realise our commitment to supply electricity as per demand. The officials should take responsibility for this failure as the government has taken proper measures in this regard" said Kazi Keramat Ali, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
He made the comment at the Standing committee meeting held at Jatiya Sangsad the day before yesterday. However, other members of the committee agreed with the Chairman's statement and urged the utility officials to take immediate measures in this regard.
Keramat Ali claimed that the people living in rural areas are being experiencing 10-12 times load shedding in 24 hours almost every day now.
According to the Power Development Board, it failed to produce 1800 MW of electricity because of gas shortage, the distribution agencies officials told the meeting that they failed to supply adequate amount of electricity as most of their lines are in a dilapidated state.
Taking part in the discussion, a lawmaker told the meeting that not only the rural people , the urban people are also facing serious power failures for many days;  he also mentioned of the load shedding scenario in Banani and Uttara areas of the Capital.
Power distribution companies' officials informed the lawmakers that most parts of the distribution network have become overloaded too.
"About 20 billion dollar is needed to upgrade and develop the distribution and transmission network right now," an official said.
He further said that the government focused on generating power first , and now we are focusing on distribution and transmission areas, however, we are working on it and hopefully we would be able to manage the supply crisis .