Prime Minister’s Information and Broadcasting Adviser Dr Zahed Ur Rahman on Tuesday expressed hope that the ongoing load shedding across the country will reduce significantly within a very short period.
“The burden of load shedding caused by the ongoing power crisis is now being shared relatively evenly between urban and rural areas,” he said at a press briefing on the progress of various government activities at Secretariat.
Zahed said Dhaka residents have recently been experiencing load shedding at a level that was comparatively uncommon in the capital in the past.
“Earlier, electricity supply was ensured in Dhaka while more load shedding was imposed in rural areas. But the current government has decided that the burden of the crisis should be shared by everyone,” he said.
“Electricity should be supplied more to a large city not because powerful people live there but because economic activities are concentrated there. So, there is a policy tendency in that direction. But since the government has decided that everyone will share the load shedding, we are now seeing load shedding in Dhaka as well,” he added.
The adviser said the government will also publish data showing the actual extent of load shedding during the Awami League government and the interim government, despite their claims of providing uninterrupted power supply during those periods.
“Please look into it. Hopefully, I will provide you with that data next week. I am working on it — how much load shedding there actually was at that time and how many megawatts of load shedding occurred,” he said.
He claimed that a large portion of the load shedding during those periods were imposed on rural and remote areas. “We have moved away from that approach. We hope people will understand this,” Zahed said.
Explaining the reasons behind the current power shortage, he cited fuel shortages, sudden mechanical faults at power plants, maintenance work, limitations in the transmission grid and rapidly rising electricity demand.
He said economic activities tend to increase after a democratic government assumes office, resulting in additional demand for electricity.
“During the interim government’s tenure, this demand was comparatively lower,” he said.
Zahed said load shedding is being adjusted in areas under Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) to keep load shedding in rural areas at a tolerable level and prevent prolonged outages in any particular area.
He said the electricity saved through such adjustments is being redistributed to rural areas and other parts of the country.
As a result, he said, the power supply situation for important consumer groups including industries outside Dhaka is improving.
At the same time, the pressure of prolonged and frequent load shedding in rural areas is declining, making it possible to distribute the burden of load shedding more evenly across the country, he said.