Bangladesh

Getting Electricity in

Bangladesh

Below is a detailed summary of the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain an electricity connection for a newly constructed building in Bangladesh.

This information was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 185 economies. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2012.

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  • Standardized Company

  • Name of Utility: Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd. (DESCO)
  • City: Dhaka

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Obtain clearance from Office of Chief Electrical Inspector for setting up of sub-station

The customer needs to go to the Chief Electric Inspector’s office with design plans of warehouse, plan of substation, total load requirement. The office ideally should provide this clearance on the spot, but depending on “facilitation” fees. If fees paid, then immediate clearance, otherwise it can take two weeks and several repeated follow-up visits to the office.
Agency: Ministry of Power 		14 calendar days no charge
2 Obtain permission for installation of underground cable

Once permission is obtained from City Corporation office for excavation works, the customer also needs to inform local police station of road works. The excavation permit can be obtained in a more timely manner if facilitation fees are paid.
Agency: City Corporation 		21 calendar days no charge
* 3 Hire electrical contracting firm which will purchase sub-station equipment and get it tested and carry out installation/earthing

Electrical equipment, distribution transformer, etc, needs to be purchased before hand and needs to be tested before submitting the application to the utility. Usually, all these equipments are readily available in Dhaka. The electrical equipment needs to be submitted for testing to Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
Agency: Outside firm 		15 calendar days BDT 1,800,000.0
4 Apply for license from Office of Chief Electrical Inspector

This is the official clearance required in order to set up the warehouse and obtain the electric connection (not just for internal wiring). Procedure 1 is at a more "informal" level and happens in practice to keep the relevant officials informed, but this officially takes place once customer have already gone through Procedures 2 and 3.
Documents required
• Application form
• Technical specifications of equipment and test report
• Land registration deed (on which warehouse is located)
• RAJUK approval/mutation certificate
• Fire service permission (for underground cabling)
• Architectural approval
Agency: Ministry of Energy 		28 calendar days BDT 5,000.0
5 Submit application to Dhaka Electric Supply Compnay Ltd. (DESCO) and await estimate and load requirement of solar panels

1. List of documents to be provided with application
• Two duly certified passport size photos
• Copy of land deed paper and copy of mutation certificate where necessary.
• Copy of land tax payment to the municipal/union parishad.
• Copy of the agreement paper between the landowner and developer, if building is constructed by real estate developer.
• Design of the building, duly approved by RAJUK/Municipal Corporation.
• Clear location of the meter room, including the S/S in the plan, duly approved by RAJUK/Municipal Corporation.
• Certified copy of test result on electrical equipment.
• Copy of approved/duly certified single line diagram and earthing diagram of the S/S.
• Copy of the layout diagram of S/S from the Office of Chief Electrical Inspector.
• Copy of the license received from Office of Chief Electrical Inspector.
• Detailed description of present connection status.
• Copy of the last paid bills.
2. The applicant needs to bear all the cost of 11.4kV S/S and to be connected with the nearby 11kV supply of DPDC through underground cable.
3. On submission of application, DESCO will calculate the load requirement for solar panel

The long duration noted for this procedure is due to the delay in the customer receiving the demand notice from the utility.
Agency: DESCO 		277 calendar days BDT 34,350.7
6 Electrical contracting firm conducts external connection works

This is basically the setting up of substation on the warehouse premises. All equipment already purchased, electrical contractor firm and builder does the site construction and installation of equipment
Agency: Outside firm 		20 calendar days BDT 270,000.0
* 7 Private solar panel installation firm installs solar panels

As per Ministry directive to all the utilities, all new connections with demand above 2KW will now require installation of solar panels. For domestic purposes, solar energy should meet at least 2 percent of the demand, for commercial 7 percent and for industrial 10 percent.
Agency: Private solar panel installation company 		14 calendar days BDT 570,000.0
8 Electrical contracting firm purchases meter

The meter can be collected once the estimate has been paid, and the utility sends communication to the stores dept, and store dept issues an account number, and the meter is then available for pickup. If “facilitation” fee is paid, then the meter is available soon. Otherwise, it can take longer, and repeated follow-up visits.
Agency: Outside firm 		14 calendar days BDT 250,000.0
9 Utility tests and installs the meter, conducts final inspection and electricity starts flowing

The utility conducts final internal as well as external inspection, tests the meter and electricity starts flowing.
Agency: DESCO 		30 calendar days no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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