About six thousand electricity supply-line poles worth Tk 2.5 core are lying without any maintenance and care at different Palli Bidyut Samity offices under Rural
Electrification Board in different parts of the Barisal region.
REB sources said there are six thousand poles lying unused after they were supplied to Barisal Palli Budyut Samity 1 and 2 for constructing 3,343 kilometer electricity lines in the district.
At least twenty-five per cent of those poles are under water of different ditches and low lands and the rest seventy-five per cent left in the open on different roadsides.
Each of the concrete poles was 23 to 60 feet long, constructed at the cost of Tk 30 to Tk 42 thousand at Panchagar and Sylhet by Charka and Jemcon companies funded by foreign aid and ministry of power, energy and mineral resources.
REB engineering department sources said each pole has an average lifespan of 30 years and already six years passed after they were constructed.
The BNP-led alliance government ordered to make 50 thousand poles to construct 12,250 kilometre electricity supply line for 90 lakh people in the southern region under a project financed by JAICA, Kuwait, Saudi Arab, MCCCP and the Bangladesh government, said REB sources.
However the caretaker government stopped the project alleging corruption and substandard constriction.
In different areas of the region, the poles were found piled on roadsides in front of Barisal regional agriculture research office, Rahamatpur Bridge, Dapdapia Bridge, Gasturbine power plant, Bhola ferry crossing bridge areas and roadsides, ditches near Barisal Airport, and many other places in the district and region.
Iqbal Hossain, general manager Palli Bidyut Samity 2 of Barisal, said for shortage of space they were forced to keep the poles on roadsides and under open sky.
Now work under six projects to supply electricity is going on and 3,172 poles would be used there, he added.
CM Motahar Hossain, executive engineer of the Power Development Board, said the poles would be used within 2014.
Shams Md Mokaddaes, an engineer of the department, claimed if the poles were constructed maintaining standard, keeping them in the open would not affect their lifespan.
‘But if they are of substandard materials, it would be risky to use them,’ he said.
-With New Age input
