People in the city neighbourhoods of Azimpur, Dhanmondi, Elephant Road, Kakrail, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, and Dhaka University are passing hours together without electricity as both circuits of the Ulan 1,32,000 volt power line were burnt on January 5 and March 6.

Chairman of Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (Desa) Tawhidul Islam told The Daily Star yesterday, "Burnt-out cable mending kits are not available in the country. Those will be made available from Tirelli Company of Britain and foreign technicians from Dubai and Singapore will reach Dhaka on April 3 to repair the circuits."

With a deep sense of worry and helplessness, the Desa boss said, "So long we've been suffering from poor supply quota of power because of low-level of electricity generation in the country, now that our cables are burnt we're facing additional trouble in providing power to the city people."

He, however, claimed that against 80 MW demand for power in Ulan's command area, Desa is maintaining a supply of 50 MW through alternate lines from Ulan via Kakrail. "We're feeding Dhanmondi and adjoining neighbourhoods by supplying power through 33kv Kakrail and Kallyanpur lines."

Earlier, at the daybreak on Monday, many parts of the capital went powerless due to the burning out of the Ulan-Dhanmondi underground grid shutting down power supply to Dhanmondi, Karwanbazar and Ramna sub-stations.

The worsening power situation is also contributing to the water dearth in various city neighbourhoods, as Dhaka Wasa (Water and Sewerage Authority) is being unable to lift underground water for piped supply. Wasa is operating over 250 diesel-run generators as alternative to electricity for drawing water for supply to the capital's households.

The power and water supply nightmares are haunting businessmen, office-goers, students and housewives alike but the thousands of examinees, who are to appear in tomorrow's SSC examinations, the biggest public exam in the country, are the worst victims finding it unbearable to complete last moment preparations.

Desa control room sources told The Daily Star yesterday that against a conservative demand estimation of 1500 MW power in Dhaka, it got only 1100 MW yesterday, down by 150 MW from Monday's 1250 MW. They said, Desa got lesser supply as the country's total generation was hardly 3100 MW yesterday against a nationwide demand for 4,000 MW.