Fire at Kumargaon Plant: power supply in Sylhet, Sunamganj may fully resume this afternoon

Power supply is likely to be restored in Sylhet and Sunamganj on completion of the repair work at Kumargaon Power Plant, engineers said today.

Deputy Assistant Engineer of Power Grid Company Bangladesh (PGCB) MasnunAlam told The Daily Star that one power grid of the company, which has been damaged in the fire, may be replaced by this afternoon.

Khandakar Mokammel Hossain, chief engineer (sale and distribution) of Power Development Board, said that they managed to supply power in the areas under local Palli Bidyut.

The power supply can be restored after the replacement of one transformer and control board of PDB and another transformer of PGCB in the afternoon, he said.

Read more: Sunamganj, Sylhet in dark after power station fire

Around 400 workers are trying to restore power connection, Mokammel Hossain said.

Two probe committees started investigation yesterday and will submit their reports within three working days, he said.   

Services at hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres have been disrupted due to the power cut.

Deputy Director of Dr Himangshu Lal Roy of Osmani Medical College Hospital, said, "We are running operations through generator." 

The small hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres are not being able to provide services, said Dr Nasim Hossain, president of the owners association of private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres.

The big hospitals are also compelled to stop their services when they switch off their generators for a while, he said.

Due to power outage, people of these areas are facing water crisis and other related services, reports our Sylhet correspondent.

Ali Akbar, executive engineer of Sylhet City Corporation (water distribution), said it was announced yesterday that water supply will not be possible if power connection is not restored. 

"Prior to the fire, we supplied around one crore litre of water yesterday," the executive engineer said, adding that the city corporation supplies around four to five crore litres of water against the total demand of eight crore litre per day. 

Residents of 29 wards are facing water crisis in the city due to the sudden power outage.

"We are suffering the most. We cannot charge our mobile phones… Many were seen rushing to hotels and restaurants to charge their phones. They are paying Tk 50 each to charge their phone," Alauddin Ahmed, a resident of DakshinSurma area, told The Daily Star.        

Frozen foods are also perishing due to this extended power cut, another resident of the area ZahedaAkter said.

Most parts of Sylhet and Sunamganj districts plunged into darkness after the fire broke out at the 132/33KV power station in Sylhet Sadarupazila around 11:00am yesterday.