United News of Bangladesh

Residents of Sylhet have been experiencing frequent power cuts several times a day for almost three weeks, after the 225-megawatt power station at the Kumargaon 132/33 KV grid substation was forced to shut down by a technical glitch. Bidyut Acharya, assistant engineer of the Kumargaon power plant, said engineers who have been working on reviving it however, say that the station may resume operations within this week.   According to officials at the grid, the power station was shut down nearly three weeks ago following a technical fault. However, the repair work is currently underway, with a specialised team from Dhaka now conducting testing and inspections of the station's systems. "The team from Dhaka is carrying out the testing. Once all tests are completed and systems are verified, we are hopeful the 225 MW station will be operational within the week," said Acharya. 2 units of Barapukuria power plant resume generation Electricity from the Kumargaon plant is distributed to all four districts within Sylhet division:  Moulvibazar, Sunamganj, Sylhet and Habiganj. In its absence, Sylhet is currently relying solely on power from the national grid. However, the National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) has been supplying Sylhet with less electricity than the region's demand, leading to increased load shedding. People of these districts have been going through prolonged power outages and disruptions in the area. The inconsistent power supply has also disrupted water distribution by the Sylhet City Corporation, leading to daily water shortages in many neighborhoods. Payra Power Plant’s Unit 2 to remain offline for maintenance for 2 months Officials from the local power distribution office have said load shedding may be expected to persist, or even worsen, until the power station is fully operational.  

As many as 158 passengers who boarded a Dhaka-bound flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines from Kolkata on Monday night, had a traumatic experience for nearly four hours with no air-conditioning and inadequate food supplies. The flight was scheduled to take off for Dhaka from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata around 9.05 pm on Monday and the passengers got on the aircraft some 45 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure. However, the flight could not take off due to a problem with the landing gear, Tahera Khandaker, general manager for public relations at Biman Bangladesh Airlines, told UNB on Tuesday. Read: Three Biman officials suspended over plane collision incident "As per Biman's safety regulations, power has to be cut off while fixing any technical problem. That was why the air-conditioning system of the aircraft had to be switched off and several passengers on board felt uneasiness," she said. "Besides, the passengers were not allowed to exit the aircraft as per Kolkata airport rules," Tahera explained. It took engineers around three hours to fix the technical glitch, following which the flight took off and reached Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka around 1.42 am (local time) on Tuesday, said the official.

Bangladesh Bank has failed to launch the Interoperable transaction option among mobile financial service (MFS) providers and between them and banks as per schedule on Tuesday due to a technical glitch in its National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) system, official sources said.