State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Prof Rafiqul Islam told the Jatiya Sangsad yesterday that the government has no plan to export gas before fulfilling the country's internal demand, reports UNB.

He said the government's prime concern is to fulfil the internal demand, not export.

"We will not export gas until the internal demand is met." the State Minister assured a BNP MP who expressed concern over the "government plan to export gas."

■ Replying to Mojibur Rahman Sarwar (BNP-Barisal). he further said that under the new model of production sharing contract (PSC), 12 foreign com-Sianies have made 37 proposals or 16 blocks.

Rafiqul Islam said the northern part of the country would get gas through pipeline of the Bangabandhu Bridge from April this year.

The gas through pipeline would first reach Bangabari and then other northern parts of the country in phases, he said.

Power crisis

Rafiqul Islam also assured the lawmakers that electricity crisis would be over by the next fiscal year.

The country was facing the problem because of the shortage in power generation, he acknowledged replying to a sup-

plementary from Dr Dewan Mohammad Salahuddin (BNP-r Dhaka) during question hour in ' Parliament.

Replying to Sarwar Jamal Nizam (BNP-Chittagong). the state minister said that the government has taken steps to set up new power plant's and increase the generation capacity of existing plants.

"We are doing our utmost to end the present power crisis." he said.

Prof Rafiq said that among the four planned bargemounted power plants, one has already been commissioned for commercial operation.

"The remaining three bargemounted plants will be com-missionea by May 1999." he added.

He told the House that the rehabilitation work of the old plants is going on in full swirtg. "After rehabilitation, the old plants will have an expanded capacity of at least 110 MW."

The state minister said 60 MW Shahjibazar, 210 MW Sid-dhirganj and 109 MW Haripur Combined Cycle power plants will be commissioned by the year 2001. 2002 and 2001 respectively.

Meanwhile, a number of plans have been taken up to set up private power plants. These include 60 MW Mymensingh gawer plant. 360 MW Haripur ombined Cycle power plant and 450 MW Meghnaghat thermal power plant.