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Power-outage-free Ctg looks bleak

SHAHIDUL ISLAM
Saturday's power disaster has once again exposed the vulnerability of sustainable electricity supply as well as the capability of age-old equipment of the Power Development Board (PDB) in Chittagong region.
Even worst, any possibility to get rid of the recurring crisis in near future is also bleak as the Tk 733 crore Greater Chittagong Power Distribution Project (Third Phase), which already missed deadline many a time, was progressing at a snail's pace.
Most of the 17 substations in Chittagong are operating with age-old transformers and flagging transmission lines for which recurrence of the power crisis has long been a common sight.
"The transformers and transmission lines of the substations here are aged between 25 to 30 years and they are compelled to take overload, posing risks," said a top PDB official seeking anonymity.
He said such backdated transformers are now used hardly anywhere in the world.
As per rule, a transformer is supposed to take around 10 to 20 percent less load than its capacity for proper functioning of the transformer as well as to avoid any damage to it, sources said.
"But at the backdrop of increasing demand for power everyday, the PDB in Chittagong has no alternative to allowing additional load and this is one of the main reasons of recurring power trouble," they said.
Chief Engineer Quazi Bashiruddin Ahmed, admitting the fact, said it depends on the implementation of the Third Phase Project to have uninterrupted power supply in this region.
The helplessness of PDB was seen in the latest accident on July 23 at the Khulshi Grid Sub Station when two transformers experienced trouble at around 2.00pm, plunging about 20 lakh people under five major substations -- Stadium, Patharghata, Bakalia, Jalalabad and Muradpur -without electricity for more than ten hours.
It was the worst power disaster in the last 15 years after the
one in 1991, caused by the catastrophic cyclonic storm and tidal surge on the nightmarish night of April 29.
This year, so far, the people here experienced five such severe outages due to technical faults either of the transformers or transmission lines, sources said.
The PDB officials, meantime, look eagerly on the implementation of Greater Chittagong Third Phase Project and believe the Chittagong Region would be free of the power crisis once the project becomes a reality.
The Tk 369.98 crore project was taken in the fiscal year 1992-1993 scheduled to end in 1998-1999.
The project had missed all its deadlines and a revised project worth Tk 733.50 crore was adopted in 2000, sources said.
The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project on September 19 in 2000 and the Kuwait Fund agreed to provide Tk 230 crore of the total cost.
PDB sources, however, are sceptical about the completion of the project within its latest deadline, 2006, as major 'realistic' work is yet to start.