Power supply in Dhaka city was severely disrupted, increasing miseries of the people amid intolerable heat, as a 132 KV transmission line at Siddhir-ganj accidentally broke down at 1.55 pm yesterday.

All parts of the city experienced frequent power disruption. lasting for hours. The old part bore the brunt of the supply shortfall while other areas were less affected. PDB and DESA officials said.

The amount of load-shedding due to the incident rose to around 400 MW in the city against usual 250 to 250 MW a day. sources said.

In another incident in Narayanganj. a 33 KV power line along the bank of Sita-lakhya river broke down when

a crane of a barge hit the high-tension line "accidentally’'. A major part of the port town remained without electricity since noon yesterday.

However, the power plants were generating power normally despite the accidents in the high-voltage transmission lines.

"Usually, when a transmission Une trips, the inter-connected power plants also trip. In this case, the Siddhirganj plants could have tripped, triggering a country-wide grid failure. Luckily the plants were not affected", one source said.

Though power generation remained unhindered yesterday. the supply scenario in ihe capital remained grim till filing of this report at 9.30 pm.

Officials and engineers of PDB and DESA rushed to the spot to restore the Ulan-Haripur 132 KV line. The line is expected to be restored by 10.30 pm or 11 pm.” said a DESA official last night. “As a temporary measure, we are trying to supply power to old town areas through the Tongi-Ulan transmission line." he added.

Three major transmission linesHaripur. Tongi and Hasnabad— supply most of the power in the city. Of these, the-Haripur transmission line meets around 40 per cent of the city's requirement which is around 1000 MW in peak hours.

A PDB press release last night said, a cable of the first

circuit of Haripur-Slddhirganj transmission lihe broke down in Siddhirganj at around 1.55 pm and fell on the forth circuit of tlie same line. So. power supply through these two lines and the Haripur-Mankinagar second circuit and the Haripur-Siddhirganj second circuit was disrupted. ’

“As a result, power supply to areas under Ulan. Dhanmondi. Bangabhaban and Maniknagar substations were disrupted," the press release said.

"Power supply to Ulan, Bashundhara, Dhanmondi and Bangabhaban substations was restored within 7-8 minutes of this incident through an alternative arrangement from Tongi transmission line," it added.

The Haripur-Maniknagar second circuit line was repaired and re-started at about 3 pm. PDB technicians then started restoring the Haripur-Siddhir-ganj first circuit line, it said.

"It is expected that the affected lines will be fully restored by tonight." the press release noted . "Till that time, load-shedding in Dhaka and its adjacent areas may increase."

Our Narayanganj correspondent reports that the 33 KV transmission line broke down due to careless manoeuvring of crane the of a wheat carrying barge.

The Chittagong bound barge. "Queen Heart", came from Siddhirganj silo and was loading wheat on its way. When it was passing by the 33 kV line, the crane hit the cable and tore it. snapping power supply to Khanpur area under Narayanganj Sadar and Madanganj area under Bandar thana.

Officials and engineers of PDB and DESA rushed to the spot and started restoration work. But they said it will take about 48 hours.