A 2,000megawatt power plant would be set up in Chittagong to ease the nagging electricity crisis, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced yesterday.
The process of installing two more 100MW plants at Dohazari and Hathazari would start next year, she told a rally in the CDA residential area
after inaugurating the 150MW Peaking Power Plant at Shikalbaha ofPatiya upazila.
She also inaugurated the 3rd Karnaphuli bridge, Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd and the new Court Building after
her arrival in the port city at 11:25am.
The Karnaphuli Bridge would be a milestone in road communication between Chittagong and other parts of the country, she said.
The government would carry out massive development works to turn Chittagong into the country's commercial capital in the real sense, the prime minister told a viewexchange meeting with lawyers on the court building premises.
She said her government took up development projects involving Tk 2,400 crore for the port city in the last 20 months.
Chittagong is a commercial hub facilitating country's trade, export and import. It is also the place where the idea of independence was conceived, she said.
"During my visit to Chittagong back in 1961, I heard from late Aziz uncle (MA Aziz) about plans of declaring independence and starting the liberation war from here," said Hasina.
The prime minister said that the ruling party's positive attitude towards Chittagong would remain unchanged despite the defeat of the AL-backed mayoral candidate in the city corporation polls.
Chittagong District Bar Association President Advocate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury presided over the meeting.
Hasina later told the rally that 1.600MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by December this year raising the total power generation to 11,000MWby2015.
South Chittagong unit Awami League organised the rally.
Hasina said the Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd is aimed for mitigating gas crisis in the port city.
The premier alleged that the BNP-Jamaat coalition had repressed people of all religions and communities including the indigenous and the minority on assuming power in2001.
They became rich overnight through corruption and siphoned off money abroad, she said.
The premier said the then
BNP-Jamaat government tarnished Bangladesh's image by earning the epithet of "a country of terrorists and militants." But it has now attained the recognition of a country with potentials.
Hasina said the Chittagong port would be modernised to ensure its optimum use. Besides, dredging would be done regularly to keep the port functional.
"We are taking steps to have road and rail communication up to Kunming via Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Ghundum. Besides, efforts are on to join the Asian Highway and the TransAsian Railway," she said.
Feasibility tests for installing a tunnel under the Karnaphuli river have already started, Hasina said.
Works for setting up a deep-sea port at Sonadia would start soon and the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway would be upgraded to four lanes. It would be turned into a six-lane highway in the future, she said.
The prime minister also pledged to set up another railway bridge on the Karnaphuli river, an embankment to protect Anwara and Banshkhali upazilas from river erosion, a full-fledged television centre, a tourism centre on Anwara Parki beach and a stadium in the southern part of Chittagong.
AL south Chittagong unit president Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu presided over the rally.
Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain, Primary and Mass Education Minister Afsarul Amin, State Minister for Environment and Forest Hasan Mahmud, AL Chittagong city unit general secretary Kazi Enamul Haque Danu, south district unit general secretary Mohammad Moslem Uddin and north district unit general secretary Abdus Salam also spoke.
The newly built Shikalbaha power plant had to be shut down due to gas crisis within four and a half hours of its inauguration, reports UNB.
"After the inauguration, gas pressure dropped and the plant was shut down at 4:00pm," an official of the Power Development Board told the news agency.