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 at 5:48pm, causing widespread power loss across the Khulna and Barishal divisions, according to authorities.
Mohammad Haider Ali, managing director of the West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZPDCL), explained that the blackout was triggered by an issue at Gopalganj’s Amin Bazar, a key transmission hub for electricity generated by 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 power is being restored in several districts. Full recovery will take some more time.”
Partial power was restored to parts of Khulna city by 8pm, though many areas remained without electricity.
In Barishal, 10 Upazilas, including the city itself, faced power cuts for about an hour and a half starting from 6pm.
Aktaruzzaman Palash, executive engineer of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) in Barishal, confirmed, “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.”
The outages affected approximately 812,000 consumers across 10 Upazilas.
