1.73cr people still out of power

The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources today said around 1.73 crore customers across the country are still out of power following the impact of cyclone Remal.

Power supply to 3.03 crore consumers of Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) and West Zone Power Distributor Company were affected during the Remal that made landfall in Bangladesh on Sunday night.

Of them, the power division has restored the connections of 1.31 crore subscribers so far, said a press statement issued by the ministry today.

The electricity of 80 percent of total affected users will be restored by tomorrow and of them, around 60 percent will be restored by tonight, said the statement.

The rest 20 percent connections will take more time as the authorities will require door-to-door activities, it added.

Around 30,000 officials and employees have been working on this restoration programme across the country.

According to the latest data, at least 3,833 electric polls were damaged following the storm. Besides, many feeders, sub-stations, transformers, spans, insulators and metres have also been damaged.

"The estimated loss of the Remal is Tk 103.33 crore for BREB," the statement said.

There were around 4.5 lakh WZPDCL customers faced power cuts during the cyclone. Of them, at least 1.44 lakh customers are still waiting to get the restoration of the electricity supply.

Power Grid Company of Bangladesh data showed that till 5:00pm today, the power generation increased up to 10,621 megawatts which was below 4,000MW last night. Before the Remal hit, the power demand was more than 12,000MW.