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Major power deal inked

Bangladesh, India to jointly set up l,320MWplant in Bagerhat; govt okays 7 more pvt sector power projects

Staff Correspondent
The Power Development Board (PDB) yesterday penned an agreement with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India to build a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat.
ASM Alamgir Kabir, chairman of PDB, and Arup Roy Choudhury,
chairman and managing director of the New Delhi-based company, signed the deal to install two units of the plant with 660 MW generation capacity each.
Meanwhile, the cabinet committee on purchase yesterday approved awarding contracts for seven more private power projects with a com-
bined generation capacity of570 MW.
At the deal signing ceremony at Bidyut Bhaban in the capital, Choudhury of NTPC said the cost of the joint venture plant will be around $1.5 billion and it will start supplying electricity to the national grid by 2016. Once built over 1,834 acres of land, located 14-km north of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, the plant will be the country's largest power plant.
Under the deal, a joint venture company will be set up to construct the plant based on imported coal.
Of the $1.5 billion estimated cost, 70 percent will come from bank borrowing, while PDB and NTPC will contribute equally the rest of the amount, the PDB chief told The Daily Star.
Indian Power Secretary P Uma Shankar said the plant would help Bangladesh meet the growing demand for electricity. “It will also open a great platform for cooperation between the two countries,” Shankar added.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, who was present at the signing ceremony, said new technology would be introduced at the plant, the first joint venture in the public sector in Bangladesh, so that it becomes more environmentally sustainable.
Later at a press briefing,
Kabir said a study by a local consultation body has named Australia, Indonesia and South Africa as potential sources for coal import.
The tariff of per kilowatt hour electricity could be between Tk 5 and Tk 7, he said.
The PDB chief said the plant would use supercritical pressure technology that offers high efficiency and less coal consumption in order to keep the emission level as low as possible.
Kabir said the NTPC has completed the feasibility study of the project. “We have also got clearance of the site from the Department of Environment. The land development work will commence in February,” he added.
Shankar also said the NTPC is looking into its all possible power stations to export 250MW of power to Bangladesh as part of a two-year old deal between Dhaka and New Delhi.
The Indian secretary could not give the rate the Indian company will charge for selling power to Bangladesh.
NTPC will sell electricity at a rate it charges to any
Indian state, he added. SEVEN MORE POWER PLANTS
The approval for seven more power plants in private sector came at a meeting of the cabinet committee with the finance minister in the chair yesterday.
This is the first time the bidders for the furnace-oil based power plants have offered their tariff quotations in taka instead of dollar. It means the tariff rate will not go up if the price of the dollar soars in future, the Power Division said in its proposal.
The Power Division also said it has approved the work order for the gas-based power plants on condition that 70 percent of their cost will come from foreign investment.
A consortium of SNPC-Kushiara-DBPL got the order of installing 100MW to 170MW gas-based combined cycle power plant at Fenchuganj in Sylhet.
TVvo 50-MW furnace oilbased power plants will be set up by a consortium of Rupali Engineers and TYaders Ltd of Bangladesh (lead firm) and PT Priamanaya of Indonesia at
Singair of Manikganj and Daulatpur in Nawabganj, Dhaka.
Another 50-MW power plant will be set up in Kamalaghat Bazar of Munshiganj byaconsortium of Samuda Chemical Complex Ltd (lead firm), Samuda Power Ltd and ASM Chemical Industries Ltd.
Three more power plants will also be set up in Keraniganj of Dhaka, Bhairab of Kishoreganj and inSatkhira.
Mutiara-Power Pac Consortium will install a 150-MW plant in Keraniganj while a consortium of Aitken Spence Plc, & Alliance Holdings Ltd, Bangladesh a 50-MW plant in Bhairab and Consortium of Confidence Cement & Energypac Power Generation a 50-MW power plant inSatkhira.
The cabinet body also approved proposals for importing 25,000 tonnes of sugar and 18 lakh tonnes of various types of petroleum products from Egypt, Kuwait, the UAE, the Philippines and Malaysia through state-to-state arrangement.