Nasrul Hamid terms battery-run auto-rickshaw as ‘Tesla of Bangla'

State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid on Thursday termed the battery-run auto-rickshaw made with its own technology as “Tesla of Bangla”. 

They are using their own creativity to build these. We are not stopping them,” he said so in reference to American electric carmaker Tesla.

The state minister said this in parliament while responding to a supplementary question of ruling party MP elected from Narayanganj Shamim Osman.

In his question, Shamim Osman demanded the ban on auto-rickshaws, but the minister said that they should be encouraged.

“It may have mechanical faults. The return is much higher compared to the electricity that they are using. About 40 lakh rickshawpullers, who are using electricity, are earning” said the state minister. 

He said the government is trying to move from lead batteries to lithium batteries.

“We are working on a project regarding this matter. We will supply them with lithium batteries and take away the lead batteries,” he said.

In reply, Hamid said that there is a revolution going on now all over the world on how quickly the transport system can be transformed to electric vehicles.

He mentioned that the efficiency of an oil-powered car is 20%. On the other hand, the efficiency level of the electricity-run engine is 80%.

“Basically we encourage electric cars to come to market as fast as possible.”

He mentioned that if it takes Tk100 to go a distance in an oil-powered vehicle, it will take Tk20 to go that distance in an electricity-run vehicle.

The state minister said that the Power Division has made a policy to set up electric vehicle charging stations.

According to this policy, anyone can make a charge station.

Meanwhile, Nasrul Hamid said the demand for electricity may rise to about 17,500 MW in the coming summer.

He, however, said that the current total power generation capacity is 29,727 MW including that from captive and off-grid renewable energy, reports UNB.

 “And the grid-based production capacity is 26,504 MW. Among them, natural gas-based production capacity is 11,350 MW (43%), furnace oil-based 6,492 MW (24%), diesel-based 826 MW (3%), coal-based 4,491 MW (17%), hydro 230 MW (1% ), solar power(grid) 459 MW (2%) and imported electricity is 2656 MW (10%),” he said.

The state minister said these in parliament while responding to a written question of Awami League lawmaker M Abdul Latif.

In fiscal year 2022-23, he said against the demand of electricity during summer, the generation on April 19 was 15,648 MW in the peak hours.

Due to reduced demand of electricity in winter, the maximum production of electricity this year has come down to 10,000 to 12,000 MW.

He also said that the government has a plan for providing an uninterrupted supply of gas within the year of 2026, reports BSS. 

"We are planning to form a ring zone with an effort to uninterrupted supply of gas across the country", said the state minister while responding to a supplementary query raised by treasury bench lawmaker Shafiqul Islam Shimul of Natore-2.

Considering the priority of gas supply, Hamid said the government has taken a master plan for priority-based gas supply, adding "The energy division has taken a master plan on priority-based gas for supplying gas to industries".

Under government policy, gas is now being provided to the industries and power supply plants.

Before the period of 2008, the state minister said the BNP-Jamaat had no plan regarding gas supply as they provided gas to anywhere without any prioritized plan regarding.

The present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has formed an integrated master plan in 2010 for supplying gas on a priority basis.