Electricity connection in a day
The government will provide electricity connections to households immediately after receiving an application in order to improve the country's record in the international benchmark, said the state minister for power yesterday.
It now takes more than three months after households apply for electricity connections, said State Minister Nasrul Hamid, which can be cut down.
“People will get connections on the day they will apply,” he said at the monthly “Meet the Reporters” programme of Dhaka Reporters Unity in the capital.
A decision in this regard will be made within a month, he said.
“I think households don't need to submit land documents to avail electricity connections.”
The remarks were made at a time when Bangladesh sees itself at the bottom of a list of 187 countries in the latest report of the World Bank's Ease of Doing published in October last year. The ranking was done in consideration of how easy it is in countries to get electricity connections.
At present, getting power connections for commercial or industrial purposes involves a lengthy procedure and it takes 428 days, according to WB.
The applicants in these cases will get connections within a month or two, the state minister said.
“We are also looking how we can bring it down.”
Electricity generation has remained below the capacity because of gas shortage and shutdown of plants for maintenance.
Bangladesh has increased its installed power generation capacity to 15,000 megawatts in the last eight years.
However, the country now generates on an average about 7,500 MW, catering to about two-thirds of the population, due to lack of adequate transmission lines.
The access to electricity went up to 80 percent from 52 percent in 2009, with power generation from solar home systems taken into account.
“Had we had transmission lines in place, we would have been able to generate and supply 11,000MW of electricity,” Hamid said.
The government is working to construct more and more transmission lines to ensure uninterrupted power supply. The Chinese loans, committed during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Bangladesh, will be used to expand the transmission network, the state minister said.
The government is providing 5.5 lakh electricity connections every month. The government will boost up electricity generation significantly before the upcoming irrigation season when power demand goes up by about 2,000MW.
The ongoing gas crisis will be solved to an extent in June next year as the first liquefied natural gas terminal starts its commercial operation, Hamid also said.
The government has awarded contracts to two companies to set up LNG terminal, process imported gas and supply to the national grid.
Regarding the government's backtracking on cutting fuel prices, Hamid said the government had been working to reduce the prices but postponed the plan for the time being as the price of oil was increasing in the international market.
“If the prices become stable the government will again consider it.”
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