News Digest

Bangladesh blackout as transmission line bringing electricity from India fails

Bangladesh was hit by a nationwide blackout on Saturday after a transmission line bringing electricity from neighbouring India failed, an official from the state power company said. The blackout was caused by a “technical glitch” and swept across the impoverished and energy-starved South Asian nation at around noon, Masum Beruni, managing director of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd., said without elaborating on the cause. Officials were trying to restore electricity with “powerful generators” while they worked to repair the grid link, said Mir Motahar Hossain, an aide to Beruni.

One by one, we have begun restarting all our substations that supply electricity in Dhaka. The city will get power back as soon as possible.

Masum-Al-Beruni, managing director of the state-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd.

Bangladesh began importing electricity from India in October 2013 through a 400-kilovolt transmission line that runs from Baharampur in the Indian state of West Bengal to the town of Bheramara in southwestern Bangladesh. The country also has signed agreements with energy companies in Japan, China, Malaysia and the United States to build power plants and boost energy infrastructure as it aims to increase its meagre 11,500-megawatt generating capacity.