State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said the power supply to 70 per cent of Cyclone Sitrang-affected areas will be restored by Tuesday evening.
“The rest 30 per cent of areas will get electricity by Wednesday afternoon,” the state minister told reporters at his ministry on Tuesday, reports UNB.
He informed that some 8 million consumers remained without electricity across the country after Cyclone Sitrang hit Bangladesh.
“Out of the number of consumers, some 6 million are under the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) and the remaining consumers are of other organisations like Northern Electricity Supply Company Limited (NESCO) and West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDCO),” Nasrul Hamid said.
Currently, the total number of power consumers is 48 million across the country.
Nasrul Hamid said the power supply was disrupted mainly by the falling of trees on the transmission and distribution lines.
He said that many electric poles were uprooted by the cyclone that caused blackout in many areas.
The state minister, however, said the total damage was not calculated yet.
“It will take some more time to get a complete picture of the damages”, he said.
According to bdnews24.com, power supply has been restored to parts of Bangladesh after an 18-hour outage caused by the deadly cyclone.
After making landfall on Monday, the cyclone carved a path of devastation across the country, leaving 15 people dead, uprooting trees and utility poles while knocking out power and telecom connections.
Repairs to power lines were underway, but the work may take a while to complete due to the extensive damage caused by the storm in some areas, according to the distribution companies.
Until 12 pm on Tuesday, the urban parts of Brahmanbaria, Cumilla, Feni, Noakhali, Chandpur and Lakshmipur under the Power Development Board were still without power.
Repairs to transmission lines were ongoing in Jhalakathi town, Kathalia Upazila, Bhola's Charfesson, and Faridpur's Bhanga and Golanda, where power is supplied by the WZPDCO.
According to WZPDC officials, it may take a few more hours before the situation returns to normal as officials continue to assess the extent of the overall damage.
"We have received an estimation of the damage which we are reviewing. We will provide further details after evaluating the information," said Rafiqul Islam, director of the BREB.
Azharul Islam, managing director of WZPDCO, noted that almost all of the 460 feeder lines and most of the substations were affected by Cyclone Sitrang, triggering an hours-long blackout across the southern region.
“Gradually, our teams have been restoring electricity in the 33kV grid lines and 11kV feeder lines,” he said adding that the power supply has been restored in most areas.
He said that as an effect of Cyclone Sitrang, many trees collapsed on the feeder lines which led to the breakdown of the power supply system.
He said only some districts including Khulna, Kushtia and Jashore experienced relatively fewer disturbances during Cyclone Sitrang.