The government wants to provide power to the industries from the national grid and for this, work is underway to ensure uninterrupted supply.
A task force formed in this regard has recommended necessary steps and next week, Power Cell, Power Development Board and Power Grid Company will meet to decide on a course of action.
Industrialists have welcomed this initiative but have underlined that the price of power has to be lower. However, some industry owners feel that the price is irrelevant and getting steady power is crucial.
A 4500 megawatt power plant is sitting idle and cannot produce power due to scarcity of fuel. The country has capacity to produce 18000 megawatt of power though the subscribers are getting 12000 megawatt.
While some plants are not producing power they have to pay capacity charge.
Chairman of Meghna Group, Mostafa Kamal, says: “If the power is steady then we have no problem about the price; but the power supply has to be uninterrupted because even one minute of outage can harm production.”
He also supported the establishment of a separate line.
Former senior joint president of the association of traders and industries, Jasim Uddin, says: “We do not want to produce power; but since the government is unable to supply uninterrupted power, we are compelled to manufacture it.”
As a subscriber, I want steady supply of power, he stated.
Power department source says a task force was formed to ensure increase of demand at the off-peak hour by re-arranging the price of industrial connection.
The task force reportedly recommended the appointment of an advisory institute to re-arrange price.
A power department official observes: “Some industries need uninterrupted power because if there’s an outage, raw materials will be spoilt and work hours wasted. Our grid has not ensured uninterrupted power as yet, therefore, in addition to providing power to industries through separate lines; an emergency line has to be kept in place.”
DG of Power Cell, Mohammad Hossain, says: “Power Cell is working on the matter along with PDB and PGCB.”