The residents of Savar and Ashulia, outside the capital, have been plagued by daylong power cuts every week for more than a year due to the prevailing power system development work in the areas.

Small industries, including boutique houses, shoe factories and packaging factories, which developed in these industrial areas, are also incurring losses and losing targets of production as frequent power outages decrease productivity, increase cost of production.

Every week for at least a day, sometimes even for two days or more, the power supply remains off from 9:00am to 5:00pm which causes immense suffering to the residents and disrupts their daily activities.

Sadia Afrin, a resident of Bhadail village in Ashulia, said, "Due to the daylong power outages I face an acute water crisis, and foods that I store in the refrigerator get rotten."

A number of residents of other areas, including Bank Colony, Talbagh, Genda and Savar, also made the same complaint and said that the situation arose more than a year ago.

At the beginning the authority used to announce before they cut off the power supply through loudspeakers but later gradually they stopped announcing, they alleged.

Rashedul Islam, an officer of Administration, Human Resources and Complaints of Zihan Knit Composite Ltd, a small garment factory at Talbagh, said due to power cuts the small entrepreneurs like them face serious problems as they have to depend on a diesel-run generator which is very expensive.

They need 22 litres of diesel per hour to run only 100 machines and each litre costs them TK 68, he said.

Due to daylong power cuts they have to count an additional TK 10,000 for production per day, he said, adding that to reduce the cost sometimes they keep their factories shut before the usual time.

He urged the authorities concerned to take immediate measures to ensure a smooth power supply without further delay.

Contacted, Sayed Wahidul Islam, senior general manager of Dhaka Palli Bidyut Samity-3, said Savar is one of the oldest areas under Palli Bidyut Samity. Though they generate enough electricity, they cannot provide it due to poor and old power cables, he added.

"Now we are upgrading the power supply line from Low Tension (LT) to High Tension (HT)," he added.

When asked about the sluggish progress of work, he said it is a lengthy process and to speed up the work, they need more manpower and equipment which they are lacking now.

However, he said if the work progresses at the current pace they might need around two more months to complete the upgradation work.