Daylight saving time to start from March 31

BSS, Dhaka

Country would observe DST (daylight saving time) again from midnight 31 as per the decision of the cabinet by moving the clocks one hour forward.
“The clock will again be put forward by one hour from March 31, and it will remain so until October 31, 2010. The decision was made in light of factors such as the growing demand for electricity,” M Abul Kalam Azad, Secretary of the power division told BSS on Saturday.
Aimed at saving around 200 MW of electricity in pick hours and to ensure electricity into the irrigation pumps smoothly, government introduced DST from June last.
“The amount of electricity saving is not the main issue, this system helps us a lot to face peak hours demand in city areas,” Ataul Masud, Managing Director, Dhaka Power Development Company (DPDC) said.
According to the power division the country would face severe load shedding in this summer as the demand of electricity for irrigation has increased by 1500-1600 MW than the previous year as the government targeted more production of Boro.
“Power Development Board (PDB) could produce 4100-4200 MW on an average against the estimated demand of 6000 MW in this summer,” a top official of the power division said.
According to the power ministry the government has taken various measures to address the power crisis which needs two to three years to implement.
“We are working on war footing, we are just addressing the issue on adhoc basis as we don’t have adequate quantity of fuel and efficient power plants, in this situation we all have to stop misuse of power and use efficient appliance to save energy,” the power secretary said.
The country faces an acute energy shortage during March to September, electricity demand increases with average load shedding. However, load shedding will continue to occur until new power plants come into operation, which is expected to happen in 2011.