Power supply starts to normalise hours after a grid failure

The power supply of Bangladesh has started to normalise in many areas hours after a grid failure knocked down the connection to nearly half of the country.

Power outages hit large swathes of Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and Mymensingh divisions after a transmission line of the national grid tripped in the eastern zone on Tuesday, officials said.

The trouble started around 2 pm due to a 'technical glitch', according to the state-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.

It said power was restored through the Maniknagar transmission line, which is used for supply to the Bangabhaban, around 5:30 pm.

ABM Badruddoza Sumon, a spokesperson for the company, said in the evening power was back to the entirety of the Sylhet zone and most parts of Tangail, Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Manikganj, Gazipur and Chattogram, according to bdnews24.com.

However, some parts of Dhaka and Cumilla remained without power.

Badruddoza said power will be restored to these areas soon.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid earlier said power returned in some areas four hours after the outage.

In a Facebook post, he said power would be back “at the soonest” and called for patience as engineers and technicians were working to repair the national grid transmission lines.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said power started to be normal in some areas and it might take until 8 pm to restore the connection to Dhaka and 9 pm to Chattogram.

In a Facebook post at 5 pm, Palak said power connection became normal up to Amin Bazar grid. “Restoration is a lengthy and complex process even if the power grid trips for a second.”