‘Gas, power crisis to ease next month’

BNP Acting Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has said that the ongoing gas and electricity crisis will return to normal next month. He said gas and electricity supplies are expected to become normal by the second week of September.

Rizvi made the remarks while speaking to journalists on Tuesday morning after paying respects at the graves of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, marking the 48th founding anniversary of the BNP.

He said the BNP government was not responsible for the current electricity and energy crisis, describing it as a global crisis.

“This is a global crisis. Because of the US-Iran war, ships cannot pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Fuel cannot be brought in. When one or two ships attempted to arrive, bombs were dropped there,” he said.

Rizvi also said that BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman was taking steps to address the crisis, claiming that the government was spending Tk 40,000 crore over and above the energy and electricity budget to resolve the gas shortage.

Highlighting the government’s measures to address the crisis, he said that the technical problems at the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) in Maheshkhali had been repaired and that regasification had already begun.

He said normal gas supply, and consequently electricity generation, would be ensured by the first or second week of September.

“We can already see some indications of this. Tarique Rahman is moving the country forward while tackling all these crises, and he will continue to do so,” Rizvi said.