Dhaka, Sept. 25 -- Parts of Dhaka witnessed hours of power cuts on Thursday following the partial collapse of the national power transmission grid in the morning.

Data released by Power Grid Bangladesh revealed a power shortage of 498MW at 4:00pm when the supply of power stood at 14,379MW against the power demand of 14,900MW, which is just half of Bangladesh's current installed power generation capacity of 28,197MW.

The power grid collapse undermined the promise to provide an uninterrupted power supply during the Durga Puja celebration, which is just days apart. Power cuts during the Durga Puja, the largest religious festival of the minority Hindu community, could compromise security measures.

"The transformer is not yet back in full o...