Power crisis may ease from this evening: State Minister Amit
State minister says government is exploring all available options to ease the energy crisis.
The country's power situation is expected to improve from this evening as the government has adopted a strategy to address the ongoing energy crisis, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Anindya Islam Amit said today (12 August).
"We adopted a strategy from yesterday evening. We hope the power situation will improve from this evening," he told reporters at the Secretariat this afternoon.
Asked about discussions with Malaysia over LNG supplies, the state minister said, "We hope to get at least one LNG cargo. If LNG has to be brought through ISO tanks, it is a matter of process. As you know, ISO tanks are not available," he said.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
"We are working with all the alternatives available to us," he said.
Asked whether the government would issue a message to the public about the crisis, Amit said, "People certainly want to know the government's message. If I were in a position to give that message, I certainly would," he said.
"Considering the public suffering, we are making every possible effort. I believe the people understand that there is no lack of effort on our part," he added.
Amit said increasing domestic gas production overnight was not possible, adding that Bangladesh had also sought cooperation from the United States to secure LNG supplies.
The government is working to secure additional LNG while exploring alternative measures to ease the immediate supply shortage, he said.
The state minister blamed previous governments for failing to pursue medium- and long-term solutions to the country's energy needs.
"When you adopt a wrong policy, at some point you have to pay the price for it," he said.
"Previous governments did not look for any medium- or long-term solutions. They pursued immediate solutions, which is why a crisis has suddenly emerged today," he added.
According to Amit, the current crisis was inevitable and could have surfaced at any time.
"If it had not happened today, it might have happened tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then perhaps the day after. At some point, we had to face this situation," he said.
