Power outage at secretariat in PM?presence
In a rare incident, Bangladesh Secretariat witnessed a power outage for two minutes from 1:05pm to 1:07pm yesterday while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was present at the administrative hub of the country.
Its a norm to ensure uninterrupted supplies of power and other utility services to the secretariat whenever the prime minister, also the minister for power, energy and mineral resources affairs, is present at the secretariat.
The central office of Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) and its regional office in Ramna are responsible for supplying electricity to the secretariat. Talking to The Independent, Brig Gen Nazrul Hasan, managing director of the DPDC, said they failed to supply electricity to the secretariat for two minutes as the supply line from the Siddhirganj power station collapsed due to some technical glitches.
However, Masum Al Biruni, managing director of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited (PGCBL), said there was no major failure in the national grid. It might be a minor technical glitch at some parts of the national grid, he said.
Secretariat employees said almost all their activities came to a halt as the lifts and other electronic machines stopped functioning at that time. Some people were trapped inside the lifts and became frightened.
The lifts, however, were made operational swiftly using generators and the trapped passengers were rescued.
