Normal life in the Sylhet city was disrupted severely as the entire city and its outskirts remained without power for around 20 hours since Wednesday 8:30pm
after a storm snapped the power supply system.
Residents of different city areas alleged that they had to face troubles in maintaining the household and commercial activities for lack of power.
‘Power supply was suspended immediately after the rainstorm began Wednesday night at around 8:30pm and since then the supply was not restored despite repeated requests to the Power Development Board authorities,’ Nasima Begum, a housewife of the Kadamtali area in the city, alleged Thursday noon.
She said she could not manage a single bucket-full of water to bathe her two-year-old daughter during the day. ‘Water supply has also remained suspended for lack of power,’ she added.
Talking to New Age, a printing shop owner, Golam Kibria, of Zindabazar in the city, said they failed to make delivery of posters to the clients, including a mayoral candidate and three ward councilor aspirants, up to 3:00pm on Thursday because of the power crisis.
‘It will be very hard for us to make up the loss as it was the peak time for the printing business ahead of the upcoming Sylhet City Corporation polls,’ the shop owner commented with a gloomy look.
Sources in the power development authorities said the power supply across the city had to be suspended after a thunderstorm swept over the city Wednesday night and caused a major damage to the electricity supply line.
‘The insulators of the 33,000-killowatt electricity gridline under the Bateshwar and Kumargaon power stations in the city have been damaged after a series of thunders hit the power gridline during the Wednesday’s thunderstorm, snapping the power supply system in the city,’ Sylhet PDB chief engineer Mohammed Solayman.
He said the power supply line had been damaged after the roadside trees fell on the electric lines at different places in the city.
They claimed that the PDB officials and employees went out to restore the power supply in the city by repairing the damaged lines after the rainstorm stopped at around 10:00pm Wednesday.
‘Fixing the supply line is taking time as the there have been some major damage in it,’ Solayman added, saying that they have not fixed some technical glitches despite their sincere efforts.
Sylhet PDB division-2 executive engineer Nazrul Islam told New Age that they were trying to resume power supply for a short period in different areas in the city since 4:20pm on Thursday.
‘Restoring the full supply will take a bit more time, as some of the transformers have been overloaded,’ he said.
Residents of many areas in the city, however, alleged that the power supply did not resume in their respective areas even after 5:30pm on Thursday.
-With New Age input
