Bangladesh will be back on DST again on 31st March

Bangladesh would return to the daylight saving time again on March 31 as per the decision of the cabinet by moving the clocks one hour forward.

The country would return to the daylight saving time again on March 31 as per the decision of the cabinet by moving the clocks one hour forward.

“The clock will again be put forward by one hour from March 31, and it will remain so until October 31, 2010. The decision was made in light of factors such as the growing demand for electricity,” M Abul Kalam Azad, Secretary of the power division told BSS on Saturday.

Aimed at saving around 200 MW of electricity in pick hours and to ensure electricity into the irrigation pumps smoothly, government introduced DST from June last.

“The amount of electricity saving is not the main issue, this system helps us a lot to face pick hours demand in city areas,” Ataul Masud, Managing Director, Dhaka Power Development Company (DPDC) said.

According to the power division the country would face severe loadshedding in this summer as the demand of electricity for irrigation has increased by 1500-1600 MW than the previous year as the government targeted more production of Boro.

“Power Development Board (PDB) could produce 4100-4200 MW on an average against the estimated demand of 6,000 MW,” a top official of the power division said.

According to the power ministry, the government has taken various measures to address the power crisis, which needs two to three years to implement.

“We are working on war footing, we are just addressing the issue on adhoc basis as we don’t have adequate quantity of fuel and efficient power plants, in this situation we all have to stop misuse of power and use efficient appliance to save energy,” the power secretary said.

Daylight saving time will be back by one hour on October 31, in 2010. The clocks will move back one hour again.