Frequent power cuts have pushed up sales of Instant Power Supply devices and power generators in the port city of Chittagong, according to the traders and city dwellers.
Residents said finding no other alternative they were buying the equipment.
Customers from upper and middle class throng power device shops in the city.
They choose and buy devices and collecting various information, namely price, capacity etc., from the shops.
‘It is very tough for me to afford an IPS as I am a worker Tk 15,000 monthly wage,’ said Mohammed Jafar Alam, works for a private organisation.
He, however, bought a 280-watt-IPS at Tk
18,000 from the Agrabad outlet of Rahimafrooz on Thursday.
The IPS was the cheapest and he had to manage the cost through curtailing his other family expenditure, he added.
He said had had no other way to ease the suffering of his family.
Rahimafrooz sales officer Waziul Islam Sajib at Agrabad reported that the outlet’s sales had been increased three times just within a month.
The outlet had been selling about 12-15 IPS every day, he added.
He also said that sales of IPS had also been increased in 28 outlets of the company in Chittagong.
‘The company is doing a brisk business and did not increase the price of the devices as there is certainly a sharp rise in demand,’ he added.
He also said that not only the affluent section but the low and middle class people were also purchasing IPS costs from Tk 17,990 to Tk 60,000.
Nurul Amin Shapan, proprietor of the Mostofa and Company, sole agent of Chinese power generator company Weichi Power at Jubilee Road, said sales of power generators had been doubled in comparison with the previous month.
He also said particularly the affluent section was buying the power generators as those machines need costly fuel.
They were selling three to four generators priced at Tk 7,000 to Tk 35,000, he said.
The Power Development Board officials said that they were supplying about 430 to 460 megawatt electricity in the city as against the daily demand of 700MW.