Blackout hits 21 southern districts from afternoon

A massive blackout has disrupted power supply to 21 districts in southern Bangladesh after a national grid line tripped on Saturday afternoon.

The outage began around 5:48pm, plunging districts across the Khulna and Barishal divisions into darkness, according to authorities.

Mohammad Haider Ali, managing director of the West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZPDCL), said the blackout was triggered by a problem at Gopalganj’s Amin Bazar, a key transmission centre for electricity generated from the Rampal and Payra thermal power plants.

“The issue is believed to have been caused by a sudden increase in load due to the heat,” he said. “However, the situation is gradually improving, and electricity is being restored in several districts. Full recovery will take some more time.”

Partial power was restored to parts of Khulna city by 8pm, although many areas remained without electricity.

In Barishal, 10 Upazilas, including Barishal city itself, experienced power cuts for about an hour and a half starting from 6pm.

Aktaruzzaman Palash, executive engineer of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) in Barishal, said: “Power supply to 21 districts, including Barishal, was disrupted from 5:50pm to 7:30pm due to a technical glitch. The exact cause is still under investigation. Power was restored after 7:30pm.”

As many as 812,000 consumers across 10 Upazilas were affected by the outages.