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KALAPARA OF PATUAKHALI

1,320MW power plant to come on stream next June
SOHRAB HOSSAIN, Patuakhali
Another 1,320MW coal-based thermal power plant is in progress in Patuakhali’s Kalapara area. The first of its two units (660MW each) will come on stream in June 2024 and the second unit in October.
The under-construction power plant is located on the banks of the Ramnabad River, just two kilometres north of the 1,320MW Payra Thermal Power Plant in Patuakhali.
Rural Power Company Limited (RPCL) is implementing the project.
Project director Taufiq Islam said the physical progress of the project is 73 percent and the financial progress is 51 percent till June this year.
According to RPCL sources, 915 acres of land in Nishanbaria, Dhankhali and Londa villages of Dhankhali union of Kalapara upazila have been acquired for this project, but the infrastructure construction work is progressing on 500 acres.
The physical structure of the first unit including boiler, main power house, turbine, generator hall has already been completed.
Besides, chimney, central control room, laboratory, fuel oil storage, water storage, transformer grind, fly ash silo, fuel-well pump, rain water reservoir, fire station service and firefighting water tank, regular and irregular waste water storage basin, infrastructural works of administrative building, engineering building, multipurpose hall, workshop, mini fire station have also been completed.
Construction of jetties for loading-unloading coal and conveyor belts for bringing coal from ships is also underway in the project area. The main equipment of the project -- including the main transformer -- has also been installed and some goods are in the process of discharge at Chattogram Port.
Sources also said currently 5,979 officials and employees -- 972 foreigners and 5,007 Bangladeshis -- are working on the project.
Dormitories, canteens and mosques have been constructed for the officers and employees working at the project site.
Recently visiting the power plant, this correspondent saw that local and foreign workers are doing various types of work including installation of equipment. Apart from this, internal and external road development work is also going on.
Local Dhankhali UP chairman Md Tinu Mridha said his union has three power plants. Among them 1,320MW Payra Thermal Power Plant has been operational since last year while the construction work of RPCL and Ashuganj power plants are ongoing; and the RPCL’s work is almost at the end.
The electricity generated here is being added to the national grid, he said.
Contacted, Kalapara Upazila Parishad Chairman Rakibul Ahsan said the present government has taken various steps in electricity generation, as a result of which the power situation has significantly improved.
Project director Taufiq Islam said this power plant is being built at a cost of around Tk 2,500 crore.
“If everything goes well, the first unit of the power plant will come into production in June next year and the second unit in October. The electricity generated there will be connected to the national grid through the Payra thermal power transmission line,” he added.