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Power outages hamper production in mills, boro cultivation

Staff Correspondent, Khulna
Frequent power outages in Khulna and Bagerhat districts are seriously hampering production in mills and factories and boro cultivation.
The victims say that hardly a day goes without load shedding of electricity at short intervals.
According to chief engineer Abul Kalam Azad of West Zone Power Distribution Company Ltd. (WZPDCL), around 100 megawatt of electricity is being supplied against the requirement for 140mw in Khulna and Bagerhat districts everyday.
As a result, 33 fish processing and ice factories of these two districts have become the worst victims of severe power crisis which has also hit irrigation work in 88,000 hectares of land meant for boro cultivation.
Superintending engineer of WZPDCL Anil Chandra Halder told this correspondent yesterday that only
60mw is being supplied against the total need for lOOmw in Khulna metropolitancity.
Chairman of Sonali Jute Mills in Khulna city SM Emdadul Hossain said his mill is incurring a loss of at least Tk 5 lakh a day as it has to buy fuel for generator to keep the wheels running.
Load shedding has severely hit production at my jute mill which it never experienced before, he said.
The mill that produced 18,000 metric tonnes of jute goods a month now produces less than 3,000 metric tonnes because of frequent load shedding, he added.
Assistant engineer of Palli Biddyut Samity (PBS) Anit Kumar Roy said, severe power crisis had been affecting boro cultivation in almost all nine upazilas of Khulna district.
Khulna Wasa engineer Md. Ashekur Rahman said frequent load shedding had also hit normal water supply in the city.
Our Gaibandha corre-
spondent adds: In the last few days, boro seedlings at many places of the district dried up for want of adequate water.
This is because of the erratic power supply and voltage fluctuation, as the grid stations are not getting adequate power supply in the peak period of boro cultivation, sources said.
Everyday, power supply remains off for about eight to ten hours hampering boro cultivation, industries, trade and education of students, they said.
According to local PDB sources, although the requirement of power is 16mw a day, the district gets only six to seven mw. Sometimes, the supply comes down to only two mw, they said.
Farmers in different upazilas of the district agitated several times demanding steps to stop erratic power supply and frequent load shedding at least in the boro season, but to no effect.