After 11 days of onset, the ongoing heatwave substantially intensified over the 24 hours until Tuesday afternoon, spreading to a third of Bangladesh amidst forecasts of it worsening further.
In Dhaka, the maximum day air temperature increased by 6C over the time with the temperature reaching 36.5C constituting a mild heatwave.
People felt far more 聽uncomfortable in the ongoing heatwave than the one in April, when temperature frequently reached 40C due to a very high amount of moisture in the air鈥攐ften above 90 per cent.
The heatwave raised cooling demand, triggering load shedding as the government, financially hard-pressed, struggled to cope with the demand while India reduced power supply because of unpaid electricity bills.
PDB member Khandaker Mokammel Hossain told 抖阴精品 that India reduced power supply to keep Bangladesh under pressure to get their outstanding bills.
鈥楾he situation will improve in just a few days with the five-day Eid holiday beginning soon,鈥� he said.
The Eid-ul-Azha holiday would begin on Sunday.
The Power Grid Company of Bangladesh data showed that the power supply from Tripura fell to as low as 58MW on June 10 against the supposed supply of 160MW.
The power supply from Tripura stayed below 100MW for some time.
In the past week of the last month, Tripura State Electric Corporation Limited told Indian media on more than one occasions that they were forced to reduce power supply because the Power Development Board owes them Rs 100 crore.
Tripura started supplying power to Bangladesh from the state-owned ONGC Tripura Power Company, in short OTPC, in March 2016. Initially, it supplied 100MW which was later increased to 160MW.
This is for the second time in about a month that India reduced its power supply to press for outstanding bills.
At the end of April, when Bangladesh was being scorched by one of its worst heatwaves in decades, India halved its supposed power supply of 1,000MW.
On Tuesday, Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum day air temperature of 38.3C was recorded in Rajshahi.
Until 5:00pm on Tuesday, the PGCB recorded its highest load shedding of 479MW at 3:00pm. The electricity demand at the peak load shedding hour stood at 15,150MW,聽 just half of Bangladesh鈥檚 installed generation capacity.
A mild to moderate heatwave was sweeping over the districts of Dhaka, Tangail, Faridpur, Madaripur, Gopalganj, Narayanganj, Rajshahi, Pabna, Chapainawabganj, Cumilla, Chandpur, Khagrachhari, Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Jashore, Chuadanga, Kushtia, Magura, Barishal, Patuakhali and Bhola and it might continue today, said the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
The BMD in its 24-hour weather bulletin issued at 6:00pm on Tuesday predicted that light to moderate rain showers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at most places over Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions, at a few places over Rangpur, Dhaka and Chattogram divisions and at one or two places over Rajshahi, Khulna and Barishal divisions.
The India Meteorological Department predicted heatwave to severe heatwave conditions to prevail until June 15 in areas such as West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand from where hot air enters Bangladesh.
