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West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited

autonomous · partial (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head
Engr. Md. Azharul Islam
Role
Managing Director
Annual budget
—
Staff
—
Established
2002
Legal basis
Incorporated as a public limited company on 4 November 2002 under the Companies Act 1994 as an enterprise of Bangladesh Power Development Board; took operational control of BPDB's western zone on 1 October 2003; employees formally transferred from BPDB on 16 December 2007

WZPDCL is managing a severe summer supply deficit across its 21-district service area: in Khulna, peak demand of 750 MW (April 15) outstripped supply by up to 178 MW with six of ten regional plants offline due to fuel shortages; Barishal faced a ~28.5 MW gap with 5-6 hours of daily outages. Load shedding eased marginally to 1-2 hours in some zones by April 23. WZPDCL's financial position remains structurally dependent on BERC's upcoming retail tariff ruling (public hearings May 20-21, 2026), as the company previously sought a 20% retail tariff hike in 2022 to cover rising bulk purchase costs.

Recent activity

Provenance & notes

Incorporated 4 November 2002 under Companies Act 1994; operational from 1 October 2003 when BPDB's western zone was formally transferred; staff transition from BPDB completed 16 December 2007 -- per Wikipedia and confirmed by Daily Sun AGM coverage. Managing Director Engr. Md. Azharul Islam confirmed from two Daily Sun sources: the 20th AGM report (where he appeared alongside Board Chairman Md. Nurul Alam) and a separate article headlined 'Azharul Islam takes over as WZPDCL MD'; he is listed ahead of A.H.M. Mohiuddin who appears to be an earlier MD mentioned in older Wikipedia snapshot and BSS. head_since is null because no appointment date for Azharul Islam was recoverable from accessible sources; verification_status is partial on this basis. Wikipedia's coverage area of 21 districts (10 Khulna Division, 3 Barishal Division, 5 greater Faridpur, plus Chandpur and Shariatpur) cross-confirmed by UNB, TBS, and The Voice News. Load-shedding MW figures (April 15-16, 2026) sourced from UNB report citing WZPDCL central control room data and CEE Rokon Uzzaman; New Age cross-confirmed the Khulna region crisis. Barishal demand/supply and hours (5-6 daily, ~28.5 MW gap) from The Voice News April 17 article. Load easing to 1-2 hours in some WZPDCL areas by April 23 from Prothom Alo English. The 20% WZPDCL tariff proposal and 15.43% BERC TEC recommendation are from 2022-2023 proceedings (TBS News, Prothom Alo English); the May 2026 BERC hearing (17-21% hike proposal) affects the sector broadly including WZPDCL but no WZPDCL-specific 2026 tariff filing was found. Staff count and annual budget not published in any accessible English-language primary source. admin_level set to 'divisional' as the entity's jurisdiction is multi-divisional regional, not national.

Sources