Still 7.64% consumers have to bribe in getting electricity connections: Survey
Such a gloomy picture came from a field level survey conducted by the Micro Industries Development Assistance and Services (Midas) on behalf of the Power Cell, which was presented at an event at Biduyt Bhaban in the city on Thursday.
Despite the government announcing that it has ensured the target of ensuring 100% access to electricity, 7.64% consumers have to provide bribes to officials to get electricity connections, a survey by the Micro Industries Development Assistance and Services (Midas) has found.
Midas conducted the survey on behalf of the Power Cell, which was presented at an event at Biduyt Bhaban in the city on Thursday (30 November).
Responding to the survey, some 90.78% respondents said 'no' when asked if as they paid any type of additional money for getting new power connection while 7.64% said 'yes', and 1.58% customers say 'no response'.
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The survey tiled: "Customer Satisfaction Survey With Recommendation Of Quality Power Supply Including Saidi/Saifi" was unveiled on Thursday.
The survey was conducted on a random basis among 15,245 consumers of six distribution companies of which 90.93% was residential, 89% industrial, 8% commercial and 18% for irrigation. Some 52.01% of the customers participating in the survey are prepaid meter users.
Commenting on the survey, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said the government has taken more measures to increase the level of customer satisfaction through making them easier.
He said providing uninterrupted electricity supply will be the main challenge in the days to come.
About uninterrupted power supply, the survey found that 65% of customers said they get uninterrupted power supply, while 34.38 percent of customers responded negatively and 0.62% did not respond to the question.
On the duration of power outage per day some 58% customers said the experience about half an hour of power cut per day while 20.79% said the power outage duration per day is between '0.6-1.0 hour' while 14.5% said that power outage remains within 1-2 hours and the remaining 3.3% percent more than two hours.
Average duration of power per outage 36.12% of customers mentioned '26-30 minutes', while 14.51% of customers mentioned '16-20 minutes' and 12.69% mentioned '11-15 minutes'.
With senior secretary of Power Division Habibur Rahman in the chair, the event was also addressed by Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) Md. Mahbubur Rahman, Power Cell director general Mohammad Hossain, Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) managing director Bikash Dewan, and Dhaka Electricity Supply Company (Desco) Managing Director Kawsar Amir Ali.
