Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is going to supply electricity connections to the remote island of Hatiya, Kutubdia and Nijum in its off-grid areas through submarine cables, drawn under the riverbeds.

To this end, tender evaluation work is going on. Once completed, around 42 thousand families will come under electricity facility, BPDB official said.

According to BPDB, a project titled '100 percent Reliable and Sustainable Electrification' in the three islands worth taka 384.36 crore has already been approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) recently. It is expected that the project will be completed by June 2023.

An official of BPDB told Bangladesh Post “After receiving the approval from ECNEC, the agreement will be completed with the supplier. Then the supplier will start manufacturing the product. We are trying to complete the work within the stipulated time. However, if we got the approval only two months ago, it would be easy to supply the product within this winter. However, the material supplying work to the project area is so difficult during monsoon.”

“Under this, it will construct four new 33/11 kV substations with installation of 33 kV submarine cables 6 km long in Kutubdia channel. The other works are installation of 11 kV submarine cable in length of 1.5 km in Muktaria-Nijhum Island canal, construction of new 676 km distribution line and renovation of existing 35 km distribution line, installation of a total of 2700 pole mounted distribution substations and construction of office building cum rest house, dormitory and boundary walls, the official said.

Earlier in November, 2019, the government laid 15-km of submarine cables on the sea bed for the first time to supply electricity to the southern island of Sandwip in Chattogram district.

In February last year, the government also opened a 1-km submarine cable, drawn under the Padma River, to provide some 20,000 consumers with electricity in two char areas in Shariatpur’s Naria upazila.

Some 99 percent of people have already been brought under electricity coverage with the government working to ensure power connection for each household this year. The power division has prepared a roadmap for 100 percent electrification including hilly areas, islands and char areas.