The Bangladeshi government’s electricity company announced on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, that at least 130 million people in the country had been without electricity by early afternoon.
The outage, which began at 2 p.m. (local time), should end in the evening. The power cut affected more than two out of three people in Bangladesh. On Tuesday, Energy Development Council spokesman Shamim Ahsan announced that a massive blackout affected almost the entire country, except for some areas in the northwest.
The outage, which began at 2 p.m. (local time), left at least 130 million people in the country without electricity, or more than two out of three Bangladeshis. The Energy Development Board spokesman said the cause of the outage remains unknown. “The investigation is still ongoing,” said the latter, assuring that the track of a technical failure was privileged.
In a message posted on Facebook, Minister of Technology Zunaid Palak claimed that electricity supply will be restored at 8 p.m. (local time) in the capital Dhaka, totaling 22 million inhabitants.
The country is going through a serious energy crisis.
Due to the rise in world fuel and gas prices, linked to the war in Ukraine, Bangladesh has been going through a serious energy crisis for several months. The shortages have been aggravated by the depreciation of the local currency (called the taka) by about 20% against the dollar and the decline in foreign exchange reserves.