The government has initiated a new electricity project of Tk. 5949.95 crore to meet the demand of people from 21 districts in five divisions of the country—Dhaka, Barisal, Khulna, Rajshahi and Rangpur. The planning ministry has already prepared the project named ‘Strengthening the gridline of electricity of Dhaka and western areas’. The project will be presented at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) today (Tuesday), sources in the Power Division said.

The Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) will implement the project within 2024, the sources added. Speaking with The Independent, a high-ranking official of the Power Division said that they would install 22km of 400-KV distribution lines, 144km of 230-KV lines, and 242km of 132-KV lines. Two 400-KV sub-stations and 20 132-KV sub-stations would also be set up under the project.

“We will ask the PGCB to take further steps to implement the proposed project after getting approval at the ECNEC meeting,” he said. “Under this project, the authorities will provide electricity to the people of Dhaka, Faridpur, Madaripur, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Gopalganj, Pirojpur, Bhola, Jhalkathi, Patuakhali, Bagerhat, Jessore, Jhenaidah, Khulna, Kushtia, Meherpur, Satkhira, Naogaon, Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari,” he added.

The official revealed that the project has been undertaken to provide electricity to everyone in the country by 2021 as per the promise of the ruling Awami League government. He added that the authorities have initi

ated several projects to generate power by setting up power stations. The aim is to generate 24,000 megawatt (MW) of electricity by 2021 and 40,000 MW by 2030. The authorities are also setting up distribution lines to provide electricity for all by 2021. At present, 90 per cent of the population has access to electricity, the official claimed.

State minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid said the power generation capacity of the country is currently about 22,329 MW and would reach 24,000 MW by 2021. “We are working to ensure uninterrupted power supply to every citizen by 2021,” he said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had announced on November 14 that all upazilas would come under cent per cent electricity coverage within ‘Mujib Borsho’. Construction work is already under way to set up the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP), the country’s first nuclear power station, which is designed to produce 2.4 gigawatt (GW) of energy. The first two units of RNPP are expected to start operations in 2023.