7 Japan Garden City buildings without power for 4 days, thousands in distress

Thousands of residents in the capital's Japan Garden City have been in extreme distress due to the lack of power for four days. Children and the elderly have suffered the most due to the power outage. Some have been forced to leave their homes and take shelter in relatives' homes, while food in the refrigerators of many has been spoiled.

As of Friday (July 10) morning, power supply had not been restored to seven of the 26 buildings in the housing complex. Authorities say that it was not possible to restore the connection due to internal technical faults in the buildings.

Due to the lack of power, not only has there been a shortage of light, but also water supply has been cut off. As a result, residents have said that they have faced extreme hardship in daily activities including cooking, bathing, and using the toilet.

Residents allege that they have been subjected to such suffering for four days despite paying electricity bills at commercial rates.

Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) said that power supply was cut off due to a fault in a transformer at Japan Garden City's own 33 kV substation. Later, with the help of DPDC, the main technical fault was repaired around 11 pm on Thursday and power supply was restored to 19 buildings. However, the internal electrical faults of the remaining 7 buildings have not been fully restored yet.

Japan Garden City Manager Shafiqul Islam said that the crisis has been prolonged due to multiple technical problems. Initiatives are being taken to form a special technical team to deal with such situations in the future.