The electricity situation will improve in the next three to four days : Nasrul Hamid

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that the supply of gas will be uninterrupted by the middle of this month and the electricity situation will improve in the next three to four days. He informed this information at the ‘Post-Budget’ press conference at the Ministry meeting room at the Secretariat on Thursday. The state minister said, we are thinking about what preparations we need to have in case of a big flood in September. Work is underway to minimize this loss in the future. Bangladesh is a country of 700 rivers. Keeping electricity and fuel uninterrupted here is a difficult task. We are trying, now the situation is under our control. Gas will be uninterrupted on July 15-16. Meanwhile, Adani has also started providing electricity. Responding to a question about low gas pressure, he said, “One of our floating LNG terminals has been damaged due to the storm. The gas problem will be solved if the terminal supplies gas again on July 14 to 15. Highlighting the huge amount of damage to the power distribution system due to storms and floods, the state minister said that 30,000 of our poles have been destroyed. All the substations went under water due to flood in Sylhet region. We are trying to arrange power distribution system by prioritizing these issues. So that the customer can be supplied with electricity even during storms and floods. Recently, in response to a question about power shortage, the state minister said that Payra power plant has restarted production. A unit of Adani’s power plant has been commissioned. It has increased power supply. The supply will increase in two to three days. The situation will become normal. The Minister of State said that the IMF has given conditions to increase the price of electricity four times a year. Due to this, the price has been increased twice. This is a regular combination. If the government wants, we increase the price. When we are asked to raise prices again, we will raise prices. But for now, electricity prices are not increasing at the consumer level.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going on a visit to China on July 8. When asked if any memorandum of understanding for electricity and energy will be signed, he said, “We are trying to connect eight pipelines parallel to the grid from Maheshkhali.” The matter is being given importance in the visit to China. Apart from this, there are some projects of power transmission and distribution system. Agreements or memorandums of understanding will be signed on the subjects in which the grants will be received. He said that this investment could be one billion dollars.

The state minister said, we hope to eliminate the gas crisis by 2027. For this we aim to build two more floating LNG terminals. Apart from this, initiatives have been taken to dig new wells on land and in shallow sea.