The government’s next challenge is to ensure uninterrupted electricity at affordable price for all, said State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Thursday.

“Now, we’ll all work to ensure uninterrupted electricity at affordable tariff,” he said while exchanging views with reporters after the Power Division’s receiving of “Independence Award-2022” from the government.

The Power Division was given the Independence Award 2022 for successfully bringing 100 percent of the country under the electricity coverage by increasing the daily power generation capacity to 25,514 megawatt.

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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave away the highest national award to nine distinguished individuals and two organisations including the Power Division in recognition of outstanding contribution in their respective fields.

Nasrul said that after the achievement of the goal to ensure 100 percent access to electricity, peoples’ expectation has gone up. “Now people want quality power at an affordable price.”

He said the ministry will now give its all efforts to achieve the goal of uninterrupted electricity at an affordable price.

“We hope we will be able to attain our target by 2024,” he said adding this summer will create a new demand for 1500 MW electricity.

But primary fuel prices on the global market have increased by 4-5 times which creates a new challenge for the government, he added.

Read: PM distributes Independence Award to 9 people, 2 organisations

Power secretary Habibur Rahman, Bangladesh Power Development Board Chairman Belayet Hossain and Power Cell director general Mohammad Hossain were present on the occasion.

Many energy experts believe that though the electricity networks have reached all over the country, still many areas have to experience disruption in power supply due to weak transmission and distribution systems.