Power crisis takes a heavy toll on businesses
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Md. Fazlur Rahman
Mohammad Khokon Mia, who runs a photocopier at Gausul Azam Super Market in the city, is worried about his future as acute power crisis is posing a serious threat to his source of income.
He said frequent load shedding has cut our business hour by half.
"Although the market remains open for 10 hours from 10:00am to 8:00pm I can only manage to work for maximum five hours a day," he said.
The market only receives moderate power supply on Friday and Saturday- the weekly holidays- when most of the offices remain closed, he added.
Khokon's co-tenant Saiful Islam, has the same story. He operates a number of computers for commercial purposes.
"It will be tough to survive if the situation does not improve immediately as we pay house rent and electricity bill and meet other expenses to run this small business," he said.
Small businessmen like Khokon and Saiful are the worst victim of the growing power outage as they cannot afford to have backup supports like diesel-driven generators.
Income of Saiful has gone down sharply because of frequent power outage. His income was hovering around Tk 20,000 a month before the power crisis started to deepen from last month. "Now it is getting tough to continue normal business activities," he told FE.
Khokon said his income has also dipped to about a half from Tk. 12,000-14,000 a month due to the same reason.
Power also goes off almost every alternate hour even at the city's super mall Eastern Plaza on Sonargaon Road.
"The market remains open from 10:00am to 8:00pm in line with the government decision. But we only get power supply for half of the time. We run on generator for rest of the time," an employee of Nipoon Jewellers told FE.
Shaheen Miazi, a shop owner and former general secretary of Eastern Plaza Shop Owners Cooperative Society, told FE that the cost of running businesses had increased as the shoppers were being forced to pay extra money for having back-up power supply.
Two generators of the five-story shopping mall, which houses 467 shops' consume 25 litres of diesel per hour. "We have to use 125-150 litres of diesel on an average. The shop owners are bearing the expense to save their businesses," Shaheen said.
Sources said the present government has already started saving 100 megawatt of electricity in Dhaka region during daytime to supply it to farmers for irrigation.
The government is reportedly planning to close the shutters of the shops by 7:00pm instead of the present 8:00pm.
Currently, the demand for electricity in Bangladesh is over 5,000 MW. The maximum production is currently at 3,800 MW, a shortage of 1,200 MW. Dhaka and its surrounding areas alone consume 40 per cent of the total electricity generated in the country.
Mohammad Khokon Mia, who runs a photocopier at Gausul Azam Super Market in the city, is worried about his future as acute power crisis is posing a serious threat to his source of income.
He said frequent load shedding has cut our business hour by half.
"Although the market remains open for 10 hours from 10:00am to 8:00pm I can only manage to work for maximum five hours a day," he said.
The market only receives moderate power supply on Friday and Saturday- the weekly holidays- when most of the offices remain closed, he added.
Khokon's co-tenant Saiful Islam, has the same story. He operates a number of computers for commercial purposes.
"It will be tough to survive if the situation does not improve immediately as we pay house rent and electricity bill and meet other expenses to run this small business," he said.
Small businessmen like Khokon and Saiful are the worst victim of the growing power outage as they cannot afford to have backup supports like diesel-driven generators.
Income of Saiful has gone down sharply because of frequent power outage. His income was hovering around Tk 20,000 a month before the power crisis started to deepen from last month. "Now it is getting tough to continue normal business activities," he told FE.
Khokon said his income has also dipped to about a half from Tk. 12,000-14,000 a month due to the same reason.
Power also goes off almost every alternate hour even at the city's super mall Eastern Plaza on Sonargaon Road.
"The market remains open from 10:00am to 8:00pm in line with the government decision. But we only get power supply for half of the time. We run on generator for rest of the time," an employee of Nipoon Jewellers told FE.
Shaheen Miazi, a shop owner and former general secretary of Eastern Plaza Shop Owners Cooperative Society, told FE that the cost of running businesses had increased as the shoppers were being forced to pay extra money for having back-up power supply.
Two generators of the five-story shopping mall, which houses 467 shops' consume 25 litres of diesel per hour. "We have to use 125-150 litres of diesel on an average. The shop owners are bearing the expense to save their businesses," Shaheen said.
Sources said the present government has already started saving 100 megawatt of electricity in Dhaka region during daytime to supply it to farmers for irrigation.
The government is reportedly planning to close the shutters of the shops by 7:00pm instead of the present 8:00pm.
Currently, the demand for electricity in Bangladesh is over 5,000 MW. The maximum production is currently at 3,800 MW, a shortage of 1,200 MW. Dhaka and its surrounding areas alone consume 40 per cent of the total electricity generated in the country.