Power crisis
Azfar Khan, On e-mail
The candle industry seems to be booming. Generators are flying off the shop shelves. Charger lights are getting scarce. The reason is in the fact that the nation is passing through a power crisis. The state owned and privately owned power plants cannot meet the ever-increasing demand of electricity. Some power plants have become derelict. The power plants are now over 40 years old.It seems the government is not interested in any major development of the power sector. In the rural areas where electricity reached recently there are power outages after dark and they last for several hours. Forget about the villages, even in Dhaka there are power outages many times a day. This is occurring even in the privately controlled DESCO regions. In the past 10 years, no major power plant has been built. Power plants like the one at Kaptai Lake can generate over five times its current output with proper overhaul. The country diesel and gas turbine power plants must be given proper upgrades to increase their outputs. The northern regions where gas supply is scarce can employ coal-fired power plants. In countries like the UK and US these are still used to generate between 3500 to 4000 megawatt of power. Our country has all the resources but they are not being utilised properly. While these overhauls might take a few years, the government can take the initiative to import electricity and provide it to the people at a subsidised rate. The government should spend more money in this area, rather than purchasing new fighter jets.
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