Published 25-Sep-2009. Changed 13-Oct-2009
Bangladesh’s daylight saving time will continue to go on, as there is no fixed date or any immediate plans to end the schedule. The country will continue to be seven hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC+7.
It was earlier planned that Bangladesh would end daylight saving time (DST) at midnight (00:00) local time between September 30 and October 1 in 2009, which would have seen the clocks move back by one hour. This would have brought nation’s time zone back to UTC+6.
People in Bangladesh are awaiting a confirmed daylight saving end date. ©iStockphoto.com/Kamruzzaman Ratan
Daylight Saving Will Continue Indefinitely
Timeanddate.com contacted the Bangladesh government on October 13, 2009, to find out if the country's DST schedule had an end date. A government spokesperson confirmed that DST would continue indefinitely and no end date was set for the schedule.
When timeanddate.com contacted the government earlier (September 29) in 2009, a spokesperson said at the time that no end date for the nation's DST schedule was confirmed. The spokesperson also said it was possible that the nation could observe DST for another two or three months.
Original DST End Date Plan
Bangladesh’s Power Ministry said that the DST end date would not occur until Cabinet reviewed the DST measure and confirmed a decision (cited in sources including The Daily Star: DST change awaits cabinet decision, September 26, 2009).
It was originally planned that the nation would stop observing DST when the clocks would turn back at midnight (00:00) between Wednesday, September 30 and Thursday, October 1, 2009. It was also proposed that Bangladesh would observe DST again on April 1, 2010.
2009 DST Schedule
Bangladesh started DST at 11pm (23:00) local time on June 19, 2009, when the clocks moved one hour forward to midnight (00:00) between June 19 and June 20. Bangladesh observed DST in hope of saving energy throughout the country. The government hoped that DST would help save electricity in the evening.
Bangladesh faces an acute energy shortage during March to September, according to the Bangladesh government. About 90 million out of 140 million people in Bangladesh do not have direct access to electricity, according to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources. Moreover, electricity demand increases with average load shedding. Load shedding will continue to occur until new power plants come into operation, which is expected to occur in 2011.
Bangladesh Time Zone
Bangladesh’s time zone during the non-daylight saving period is known as Bangladesh Time (BDT), which has a time offset of UTC+6. All of the country, including its capital city Dhaka, moved to UTC+7 when the nation observed DST in 2009.
More information
- Time Zone News
- About Daylight Saving Time
- List of countries that observe Daylight Saving Time in 2009
- Time Zone Abbreviations
Related links
- The World Clock – Current time all over the world
- Personal World Clock
- Meeting Planner
- Time Zone Converter
- Fixed Time Calculator – If it's 3 pm in New York, what time is it in the rest of the world?
