The damaged rail bridge at Boalkhali is giving managers of the 100MW Dohazari power plant much cause for worry.
Since this rail route is the only one available for carrying fuel to the plant, it has to be fixed as early as possible.
Or else, the plant will run out of fuel for generating power, reports bdnews24.com.
Officials at the plant said that 200 tonnes of furnace fuel is needed every day to run the usual ten-hour operations.
The oil trains, each with eight wagons, carry fuel every other day to the plant. Each of the wagons carries 33,640 litre of furnace oil.
Since the accident on the rail bridge on Friday, the plant has been operating on reserves that are nearing exhaustion.
Arifur Rahman, the plant's manager, told the news agency: "There were 2,200 tonnes of furnace fuel left in our reserves. Normal operations can be maintained just for another 9 days."
"So unless the damaged rail bridge is fixed by July 2, power generation will be adversely impacted," he said.
He added the Eastern Railway told the plant officials that it would take two to three days to repair the rail bridge and the route will be reopened to traffic within the next seven days.
Md Kamrul Hasan, Eastern Railway chief engineer, said they are frantically trying to fix the bridge.
"We are trying to repair the broken bridge. Hopefully that should be over in the next two days. The route can be restored within a week."
Chief engineer of the Power Development Board in Chittagong Abdul Khalek promised steps, if alerted.
Two wagons of a train, loaded with oil, fell off the Bridge 24 between Gomdandi and Dhalghat at Boalkhali last Friday. Railway officials say the bridge was identified as 'risky' nine years ago.
Eight wagons of furnace oil were being sent to the 100-megawatt Dohazari power plant at Dohazari from Chittagong city.
Railway officials estimate some 50,000 litres oil spilled into the canal water and some of it drifted into the Karnaphuli river.
The district administration, railway authorities, environment department and Chittagong port authorities are working with locals to recover the oil.
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has announced an incentive, promising to buy the recovered oil at Tk 60 per litre.
