The once inaccessible town of Sajek Valley in Rangamati is no longer the same. The entire Sajek Valley has been transformed through development.
The government is also addressing the problems of access to electricity and water. The authority concerned are now set upping utility poles in the 49 kilometers (km) of Dighinala in Khagrachari.
Electricity Development Board officials said, Sajek will have electric connection from January 2020.
According to sources at the district administration, the area of the Sajek Union is 1,771 square km. Thousands of people live there permanently. Besides, one to two thousand tourists travel every day to Sajek. Hundreds of resorts and tourist centers have been established in the Sajek Valley, acclaimed for its natural beauty. There are also opportunities to set up industrial factories in the region. This is why infrastructure development of the electrical city is essential.
According to sources, the power development board said that a project of about Tk 566 crore was undertaken for development in Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban. Under the project, 12 new 33/11 KV sub-stations have been set up in these three districts.
Besides, the renovation and loading capacity of existing sub-stations has been increased. Along with the old line renovations, a new 1,310 km distribution line has been set up. Already a 49 km power line has been set up from Dighinala to Sajek in Khagrachari. As a result, 56 thousand new customers from three districts including Sajek are being brought under the power connection. Rangamati Deputy Commissioner (DC) AKM Mamunur Rashid told media, ‘Electricity connection projects in three hill districts are also one of the government's ongoing development projects. There is great potential for tourism in the Sajek Valley. So, there is already work being done to establish a transmission line to provide electricity.’
Power Development Board Chattogram Southern Region Chief Engineer Prabir Kumar Sen told said that the estimated cost of the project is 565 crore 68 lakh taka. Of this, the government's own funds will cover 538 crore 13 lakh taka and the remaining 27 crore 55 lakh will be spent from PDB's own funds. In January 2020, people of Sajek will get electricity connection. There will be uninterrupted power supply.
He said the load demand for 86 thousand 568 customers in three hilly districts is 54.50 MW. The supply line capacity is 99 MW. The annual load demand growth rate is 11.50 percent. As such, the load demand in these three districts will increase by about 279 MW by 2030. At the same time, customers will increase to 1 lakh 73 thousand 128 people. With these considerations, the infrastructure of the power distribution system is being developed to provide uninterrupted and reliable power supply to the CHT.
