Repair faults at plants for uninterrupted power supply

State Minister for Power Iqbal Hasan Mahmud exchanges views with the journalists at the PDB rest house in Chittagong yesterday.. PHOTO: STAR

He also slammed the engineers for their negligence in properly maintaining the power plants, which are causing much suffering to the residents of Chittagong.

"Check your plants thoroughly this winter and diagnose the problems to make sure that there will be no interruption of power supply in summer," the minister said, referring to the repeated shutdown of two 210-megawatt Raozan plants, Shikalbaha plant and Kaptai Hydroelectric Plant due to technical glitches.

Iqbal Hasan said, "I don't want to see any trouble in any power plant in Chittagong nor do I want to see any news of power tripping appearing in newspapers. Money will not be a problem, but I want uninterrupted power supply in the summer. If necessary, take more time to repair the faults or submit plans. I will give money."

The shortage of capital investment is a major setback for maintaining a balance between transmission and distribution of power, he said while exchanging views with the journalists at the PDB rest house here.

As the power sector is capital-intensive, at least two billion US dollars is needed to run the plants smoothly and to achieve a balance between demand and supply before 2007, he added.

Terming the Raozan and Shikalbaha plants the backbone of Chittagong, the state minister directed the PDB engineers to keep the plants functional at any cost.

Replying to a query, he said the system loss in the power sector has been reduced to 24 percent from 30 percent during the four-year rule of the BNP-led coalition government.

"Just one percent system loss means a loss of Tk 50 crore. So, in a way, we can say that we are saving a lot of money," he added.

He also assured that there would be no increase in the power tariff.

Managing Director of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Md Ridwan, Chief Engineer of PDB Chittagong region Kazi Bashiruddin Ahmad, Raozan Plant Chief Engineer Paritosh Biswas, Kaptai Plant Manager M Shafiqul Islam and Greater Chittagong Power Distribution (3rd phase) Project Director Aminul Islam also spoke at the meeting.