Power supply across Tangail remained disrupted for around six hours on Monday after a powerful storm damaged the 132kV transmission line, causing widespread suffering for residents.
According to officials of the Power Development Board (PDB), a heavy storm accompanied by lightning struck the district during the night. Two coils at the Bailla power grid station in Sadar upazila were reportedly damaged, forcing the shutdown of the entire 132kV line.
As a result, the whole district lost electricity from around 5am.
As of 11am, power supply had not yet been restored.
Emergency services disrupted
The prolonged outage disrupted emergency services, including hospital operations.
Although some institutions were managing operations through alternative arrangements, officials warned that an extended outage could severely affect healthcare and other essential services.
Residents said they were facing difficulties due to the inability to pump water using electric motors and feared food stored in refrigerators would spoil.
Khandaker Sadiqur Rahman, superintendent of Tangail General Hospital, said the hospital had been operating on generator power since morning.
“Medical services are being disrupted due to the outage,” he said.
Muhammad Anwarul Islam, executive engineer of the PDB, said repair work was underway.
“We hope to restore power supply soon,” he said.
