Power Development Board (PDB) officials in Rangpur Zonal office said, there is no hope of improvement of the situation within next one month.

A PDB engineer at Rangpur Zonal office on condition of anonymity told The Daily Star yesterday that PDB could hardly supply one fourth of demand for power in the Zone.

PDW now supplies only 154 mw power against a demand for 235 mw.

Farmers in different areas who irrigate fields with power-run deep and swallow tube-wells are also passing days in agony as they cannot operate generators in many areas due to low voltage and voltage fluctuation very often.

According to record with REB, during 24 hours on April 17, there was no power supply to its

substations in Gaibandha, Thakurgoan, Dinajpur,

Kurigram and Nilphamari districts.

The rest of the substations got "very little" of the power they needed.

At many places, farmers staged demonstrations for smooth power supply.

REB Manager at a substation under Rangpur Zonal office said two 20 mw power generation stations in Rangpur and Nilphamari are inoperative for months due to mechanical trouble.

He said, " The situation would not have been so bad had these two power stations been in operation".

Generation of one unit of power at Rangpur and Saydpur 20 MW stations costs Tk 8.25 while the sale rate is Tk 3.10 (domestic) and Tk 5.55 (commercial).

Officials at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Rangpur said the power crisis may affect IRRI-Boro production in the eight districts.

They said 6,35,000 hectares of land were brought under IRRI-Boro cultivation in eight Northern

districts in the current season.

About one fourth of the lands depend on irrigation by power-driven machines, they said.