State-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) on Sunday signed an agreement with a private outsourcing firm to set up a digital call centre and provide customer service to its 36 lakh consumers in four distribution zones — Chattogram, Sylhet, Mymensingh and Cumilla.

As per the contract, private firm Digicon Technologies Ltd will set up the call centre within next three months at the Biduyt Bhaban in Dhaka, from which it will operate the call centre to provide services to BPDB consumers from January 1, 2023.

The 24/7 call centre will remain operational throughout the year and once it comes into operation, any BPDB customer can lodge a complaint though using an app or through a call at 16131 anytime from a mobile phone.

The call centre will instantly receive the complaint and put it forward to the respective responsible official to address the issue and also send the customer feedback about the status of the complaint.

The customer can also track the complaint status through using the app and can rate the service when the complaint is resolved.

BPDB officials can monitor the service through a dashboard from their smart mobile phones.

Digicon Technologies will operate the system for the next two years from January 2023. In the meantime, it will also develop necessary software and train up manpower.

Digicon managing director Wahidur Rahman Sharif and BPDB official purchase director Rubina Haque signed the contract on behalf of their respective organisations at a function at Biduyt Bhaban.

Addressing the contract signing ceremony State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid welcomed the BPDB initiative to provide customer service using the digital system.

He, however, asked BPDB to take up the move to integrate all other call centres of other power distribution companies into one system so that any customer of any entity could easily lodge complaint and get service without any hassle.

“The call centre and its system must be user friendly and there should be a unique number for all the entities in the power sector to lodge complaint,” he said adding, it’s impossible to keep in mind different numbers of different entities as other distribution entities already set up their separate call centres.

He also advised BPDB to pursue Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to get an easy unique number to remember.

With BPDB chairman Md Mahbubur Rahman in the chair, the function was also addressed by Power Secretary Md Habibur Rahman and Digicon managing director Wahidur Rahman.

It was not informed in the function as to how Digicon won the contract and how much it would be paid for providing the service.

Wahidur Rahman said he has been providing service for Desco customers under a deal with the power distribution company.