IT is indeed heartening to see 1500 MW of electricity being added in the next three months to the country's power-starved national grid, as we hope that the newest addition will give the much-needed impetus to the country's economic growth. This is especially true for the mass electrification of the country's rural heartland, which will certainly contribute to the creation of the infrastructural backbone of the nation, paving the way for rural development and a boost in industry.

Power had been one of the thrust sectors rightly identified by the previous Awami League government after riding an electoral landslide in 2008. To quickly mitigate the ever-worsening power crisis, the government resorted to the building of some Quick Rental Power Plants that were supposed to work as a stopgap measure before the base power projects take off; as a result, of late, power outage has been reduced to a large extent.  But we are a  little dismayed that the zeal with which the projects were initially pursued are now dogged by a lack of visionary leadership, interdepartmental coordination and the presence of the perennial red tape in decision making, resulting in the slowed down progress of some of the important power projects. 

It is time we remind the government of its pledge of generating 18,000 MW of electricity by 2017, which now wobbles at a mere 10,000 MW. We earnestly hope that the government will remove all hurdles before the speedy implementation of the power projects that are in the pipeline.