The government has speeded up process of installing two power plants on an urgent basis to add a total of 360-megawatt (mw) electricity to the national grid in order to reduce the prevailing power shortfall.

The proposed two units are: Sylhet 150mw combined cycle power plant and Khulna 210mw thermal power unit, official sources said.

Under the proposal, the Sylhet 150mw combined cycle power project will be implemented entirely with the government of Bangladesh (GoB) fund while the Khulna 210mw plant will be set up under the suppliers' credit.

A senior Power Division official informed the FE that tenders for installation of the two power plants would be invited within the next couple of days.

According to official sources, a meeting was held Thursday at the Power Division to review the bidding process.

"We have asked the authorities concerned to invite tenders shortly for the projects to facilitate their early implementation. Hopefully, the bids for the said power projects are to be floated on May 6," said an official.

He further said after getting the offers for the projects, their evaluation process will be completed within a shortest possible time for the sake of their early approval from the government's purchase committee.

About the proposed projects, the official said the Adviser in-charge of the Finance and Planning Ministry A B Mirza Azizul Islam has given his consent to the implementation of the Sylhet 150mw combined cycle power unit through internal resources.

"The finance adviser has assured the Power Division of allocating fund in phases for the proposed Sylhet power unit in the national budgets," said the official.

Besides, the government has decided to implement the proposed Khulna 210mw power unit under suppliers' credit, taking the country's prevailing power shortage into consideration, the official noted.

Apart from the aforesaid two projects, the government is also considering setting up some more power units with the funding support from major donor agencies' namely the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), officials said.

The Power Adviser Tapan Chowdhury recently told the newsmen that the interim government would announce a plan by this month for adding some 3000mw of electricity to the national grid through installation of some new power units and resumption of some closed units.

Meanwhile, the power crisis has worsened further across the country in the recent days, causing immense sufferings to its users and badly affecting industrial and other commercial activities.

The overall electricity shortfall is now varying between 1200mw and 1500mw per day, resulting in its frequent loadshedding in many places of Dhaka city, sources said.

They, however, observed that even after the introduction of a load management, under which all shopping centres and market places have been kept shut after 7:00 pm, no improvement in the power supply is visible.

 
  
 
© The Bangladesh Journal