The Power Division has formed an eight-member probe committee to investigate the Khulna Power Grid failure, which caused widespread blackouts across 21 southern districts on Saturday.
"The committee will investigate the cause of the failure and determine who or which organisation is responsible for it. However, it has also been instructed to examine all possible factors, including any chance of manmade sabotage, and to submit its report within the next seven working days," Power and Energy Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan announced at a media briefing on Sunday afternoon at the Power Division.
"Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Abdul Hasib Chowdhury has been appointed as the convener of the probe committee, while the member secretary will be Mazharul Islam, Senior Assistant Secretary of the Power Division," the Adviser stated.
The blackout lasted from 5:49 pm to 6:52 pm, and restoration began shortly afterwards, although it took hours to fully resume supply in some areas.
The West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZPDCL), the agency responsible for power distribution in the affected areas, claimed on Saturday that the incident originated from the Gopalganj-Aminbazar grid substation.
In response to the outage, Adviser to the Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan issued an official directive on Sunday, stating that customer and passenger services are not acts of kindness but responsibilities.
The order was issued following Saturday's power failure in the Khulna region and the metro rail service disruption in Dhaka.
"It is our responsibility to immediately inform the public about any disruption in electricity, metro rail, road, or railway services through television scrolls and national broadcasts," the Adviser said.
Expressing dissatisfaction, he noted that the heads of the concerned ministries and agencies had failed to provide him with information about these incidents, and he had learned about them through social media, according to the directive.
The directive further stated that, from now on, any incident of service disruption affecting customers or passengers must be swiftly communicated via TV scrolls.
