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Rampal Power Project

Hasina dismisses greens' concerns again in JS

Staff Correspondent
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in parliament yesterday ruled out environmentalists' concern that the power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat would have calamitous impacts on the Sunbdarbans.
"Those who are claiming that the power plant will bring a disaster for the Sundarbans are saying wrong things. There would be no environmental hazards there," she said in a reply. She also urged the opponents of the l,320MW coal-fired power station not to misguide the people.
Flashing some photographs of coal-fired power plants of different countries, the premier said there was no environmental damage in Australia, Finland, Denmark and India. Even some residential areas were developed beside the plants in some of those countries, she added.
Environmentalists and different political parties have been opposing the construction of the plant, 14 km off the Sundarbans, saying it might bring environmental hazards for the world's largest mangrove forest.
Amid such concerns, Hasina and her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh unveiled the foundation plaque of Rampal power plant at Bheramara in Kushtia on October 5.
In the latiya Sangsad, Hasina showed a photograph of Barapukuria power plant in Dinajpur yesterday, which she took during a recent visit.
The photograph clearly shows greens, paddy fields and a water body around the plant, she said, adding that there was no damage of the greens; rather they grew more. "We did not and will not take any decision that would damage the environment," Hasina asserted.
She said the government planned to construct 11 coal-fired plants with a capacity of producing more than 6,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
The prime minister urged the opponents of the Rampal plant to surf the internet and see the photos of coal-fired plants in different countries. She also said that she would ask the power and energy ministry to put the photos in its website so that everyone could see those.
Replying to a scripted question, Hasina said the present government had added 6,675MW electricity to the national grid and increased the overall power generation to 9.673MW from 3,268MW since assuming power on January6,2009.
"A total of 57 new power plants have been installed, and 32 more are underway." The PM said the government planned to generate 24,000MW power to provide electricity to all by 2020-2021.
She said the number of power consumers had been increased by 34 lakh to 1.42 crore from 1.8 crore and the population having access to power had risen to 62 percent from 47 percent. System losses have also come down to 14.36 percent from 18.2 percent, Hasina added.
While replying to another scripted question, the premier said her government had been able to send workers to 60 new countries in the last four years and eight months.