November 2, 2022

Pabna BSCIC estate production drops due to power cuts

Production at the BSCIC Industrial Zone in Pabna, the country’s largest food processing zone operated by the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), has dropped significantly due to recent power cuts of up to three times a year. day, sources said.

Established on 110 acres of land, the BSCIC Industrial Park houses a total of 172 industrial units, of which 100 of the 169 operational factories are food grain processing units.

Around 1,500 tons of food grain is processed every day inside the industrial complex, where the largest rice-producing factory in the northern district of the country operates alongside smaller units.

In addition, there are also flour factories, pulse processing factories and mustard oil factories, said Md Rofikul Islam, Deputy Director General of BSCIC Industrial Zone.

So far, about Tk 1,400 crore has been invested in the BSCIC domain, which provides Tk 90 crore to Tk 800 crore annually to the government in the form of taxes.

So far, about Tk 1,400 crore has been invested in the BSCIC domain, which provides a maximum of Tk 800 crore and a minimum of Tk 90 crore to the government as taxes every year.

“So it’s one of the biggest and most prosperous industrial areas in the country, but the recent power cuts are seriously hampering production,” Islam said.

“We need a minimum of 11 megawatts of uninterrupted power in the industrial area to keep production running smoothly, but there have been power outages in recent weeks during peak manufacturing hours,” he said. he added.

Md Abdul Latif, estate agent at the BSCIC industrial complex, said overall production had fallen by 30-40% while production costs had risen by 5-10% due to power outages.

In this context, the BSCIC authority submitted a letter to the Northern Electricity Supply Company (NESCO), demanding that the domain be exempt from load shedding.

As the BSCIC industrial area is one of the largest food processing areas, the recent power cuts and their adverse effects on production may have a bad influence on the country’s food grain production, he added. .

Workers at Amir Hossain Dal Mill inside the BSCIC Industrial Estate in Pabna are seen playing a game of Sholo Guti (16 pieces) during a power outage yesterday. With power cuts occurring up to three times a day, production at the country’s largest food processing center has almost halved. PHOTO: Ahmed Humayun Kabir Topu

“>



Workers at Amir Hossain Dal Mill inside the BSCIC Industrial Estate in Pabna are seen playing a game of Sholo Guti (16 pieces) during a power outage yesterday. With power cuts occurring up to three times a day, production at the country’s largest food processing center has almost halved. PHOTO: Ahmed Humayun Kabir Topu

However, Md Mahabubul Haque, executive engineer of NESCO-2, said half of the total electricity demand in the region already goes to the BSCIC.

“We provide electricity to customers because we get our supply from our national grid, so we don’t have to do anything,” Haque added.

During a visit to the Amir Hossain Dal factory, it was seen that the factory workers were passing the time by playing inside the premises as production was halted due to a power failure.