Power, energy, and mineral resources adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan on Friday said that at least eight power plants across Bangladesh went off-grid following an earthquake in the morning.
By the evening, the grid situation had returned to normal, he confirmed.
Fouzul Kabir Khan, also the adviser for the ministries of road transport and bridges and railways, said that they聽 had received information from different places about cracks on some power and transport infrastructures, which were not assessed till Friday night.
On the day, the metro rail authorities in Dhaka ran a train twice on a trial basis for safety checking before opening the service in the afternoon, officials said.
At least 10 people were killed and over 500 injured as a moderate earthquake jolted Dhaka and other districts across the country on Friday morning.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the 5.5-magnitude earthquake hit at 10:38am Bangladesh local time and was centred in Gorashal of Narsingdi district, about 25 kilometres from the capital Dhaka.
While talking with 抖阴精品 on Friday evening, adviser Fouzul Kabir said that major problems occurred to the power sector due to the earthquake as these plants tripped because of fire incidents, broken insulators, breaking of insulators, busbars and isolators.
The affected power plants were Bibiyana 2 (Summit), Bibiyana 3, Ashuganj 225, Ashuganj Precision 55, Ashuganj TSK, SS POWER U-2, 600, Siraganj and Ghorashal AIS grid sub-station.
Later, he said, the officials concerned were able to聽 manage the situation and resume operation gradually by the evening.
He also mentioned that in the morning a fire broke out in a Gorashal power plant which had been controlled immediately.
About the road, railways, and bridge infrastructure, the adviser said that they obtained information from different places about cracks on some infrastructures, which were yet to be assessed yet.聽
鈥楢ll of our infrastructures were affected somehow due to the earthquake,鈥� he added.聽
Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Company Limited deputy project director (public relations) Md Ahsan Ullah Sharifi said that usually daily before opening the services a train makes a trial run on the route to check safety issues.
鈥楾oday before starting the services the train made two trial runs to find if there was any problem,鈥� he said, adding that later the services opened at 3:00pm as usual as there were no safety problems due to the earthquake.
Quoting the company managing director Faruque Ahmed, he added that no significant infrastructural damage happened to the metro rail infrastructure due to the earthquake.