90pc have now access to electricity: PDB

About 90 per cent people have now access to electricity against 47 per cent in 2009, said state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) on Tuesday, reports UNB.

In a statement, it said the number of electricity consumers has reached 29.9 million and the overall access to electricity has been augmented to 90 per cent because of huge enhancement in power generation.

The government installed 195,000 kilometres of electricity line in the last nine years since 2009, PDB said.

The number of power generation units has increased to 121 in 2018 from 27 in 2009, it said.

The total installed power generation capacity has tripled and went up to 18,753 MW from 4,942 MW during the period, it added.

The highest power generation was recorded to be 11,059 MW in 2018 while this was 3,268 MW in 2009, said the PDB statement.

The government has targeted to raise the power generation capacity to 24,000 MW by 2021 through adopting a master plan, it said.

The government has been implementing the plan on short-, medium- and long-term basis to achieve the goal and the budget for the power sector development has been increased by nine times from the previous period.

The PDB said the government is now putting its emphasis on improvement of the quality of power generation and supply.