Savar industrial belt gasps as 13-hour blackouts, fuel crunch hit hard

An acute power shortage coupled with a severe fuel crisis has pushed public life and industrial production in Savar and its adjacent areas to the brink of collapse.

Over the last few weeks, residents and factory owners in the industrial outskirts of the capital have been enduring 12 to 13 hours of power cuts daily.

The crisis has hit the country’s primary export sectors—readymade garments and leather—halting machinery and threatening international delivery schedules.

The situation is particularly dire in Savar municipality and surrounding unions, where the lack of a scheduled power outage has left citizens helpless amid a heatwave.

“We are in an impossible situation. We can’t sleep at night and can’t work during the day,” said Hamid Mia, a local resident.

Authorities at the Rural Electrification Board (REB) admit they are struggling to cope with a massive gap between demand and supply from the national grid.

Delwar Hossain, director of Needle Stitch Composite Ltd, described the erratic supply: “Electricity comes for 40-50 minutes and then disappears for two hours.”

“Sometimes it stays for only five minutes. We are being forced to declare holidays for the factory,” he said.

He added that smaller factories are struggling to source diesel as larger units secure bulk supplies from filling stations.