Power outage every alternate hour amid sweltering heat has strained the life of city residents.
Power officials said the gap between demand and supply of electricity had increased further in two days because of extreme heat and decline in power generation.
Residents of almost all parts of the city have faced power outages for 10 to 12 hours a day over two to three days.
‘It is very difficult to stay at home in this sweltering heat because of power cuts. We have faced at least 10 hours of outages, each time spanning one two three hours in 24 hours,’ said Nazrul Islam, a retired schoolteacher living at Khilgaon in Dhaka on Tuesday.
He said it had put them at pains the power outage spanned three hours at a stretch on Tuesday evening.
He said as they did not have any backup power supply system, they had to go to the rooftop or walk down the street to save themselves from the sweltering heat.
Rahela Khatun, a resident of Pirerbagh in the capital, said they were facing power outages every alternate hour. ‘My four-year-old son has fallen ill in the sweltering heat as the fan could not be run.’ They could not sleep at night because of power outage.
Similar was the power situation in other parts of the city such as Rampura, Basabo, Jatrabari, Lalbagh, Azimpur, Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Tejgaon, Uttara and Badda where residents faced outages for about 12 hours a day.
Abu Bakar, a resident of Rampura, said they had faced power outages every at a gap of half an hour on Tuesday.
Power officials said the current spell of sweltering heat increased the demand of power at least by about 500MW across the country.
‘Power generation decreased by about 100MW in two days taking the total shortage to more than 2,000MW after three units of the Ashuganj power plant had tripped on Monday,’ said a Power Development Board official.
The board generated only about 3,900MW against the country-wide demand for about 6,000MW. Officials said they could generate 500MW more if they could get gas.
Other parts of the country are also facing outages for 12 to 16 hours a day because of the rise in demand.
