Electricity for 100% villages by Dec: Nasrul

The government is expected to ensure 100 per cent electrification to all villages in the country by December this year, Sate Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told the parliament today.

The country’s 90 per cent villages have come under power coverage so far, the state minister said while replying to lawmakers’ queries.

“Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board has already brought 90 per cent villages under power coverage. Activities for bringing the rest of 10 per cent villages under electricity access have been underway,” said Nasrul Hamid.

In reply to another question, Nasrul informed the House that his ministry has given instruction to the respective authorities to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity across the country during the world cup football matches.

There is no shortage of electricity in the country as capacity to produce electricity is higher than demand. But disruption takes place sometimes due to limitations in transmission and supply networks, scarcity in gas supply and more usage of air-conditions and fans in summer.

“Under this circumstances, instructions were given to monitor the entire electricity management to keep normal the supply of electricity during the football world cup,” added Nasrul. 

Replying to another question, Nasrul told the House that the government has undertaken various projects in different terms aimed at implementing “Sheikh Hasina’s initiatives to supply power to every house” by 2021.

“The power generation capacity has already reached to 18,353 MW and the government has fixed its target to increase electricity generation capacity to 24,000 MW by 2021,” he added.

He said the government has also undertaken different projects to improve capacity of distribution and transmission line compared to power generation.

“We have a plan to increase capacity of distribution and transmission line into twice as part of the 100 percent electrification by 2021,” Nasrul Hamid said.

In response to a query, he informed the House that the government has no plan to give gas supply through pipelines to households as the ministry is encouraging to use LP gas for household affairs.