Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL) yesterday signed an agreement with Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) to set up the much talked about 1,320MW (2 units of 660MW) coal-fired Rampal power plant near the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans. The projected cost of the coal-based supercritical power plant is Tk 14,999 crore. Of that amount, the BPDB will provide Tk 4,500 crore from its own funds. The rest of the money will come as a loan from India’s Exim Bank. The plant is expected to start power generation during 2019-2020 fiscal, according to a BIFPCL press release. The contract signing ceremony took place at a hotel in the capital where high officials of the BHEL and BIFPCL put ink on papers for their respective sides.
The adviser to the prime minister on energy affairs Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, State Minister For Power and Energy Ministry Nasrul Hamid Bipu, Power Secretary Monowar Islam, Indian Power Secretary Pradeep Kumar Pujari, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Chaiman of India’s NTPC Limited Gurdeep Singh, BPDB Chairman Shamsul Hasan Miah, BHEL representative Prepal Yadav and Managing Director of BIFPCL Ujjal Kanti Bhattacharya, among others, were present at the ceremony. Environmentalists criticised the government move saying the deal was signed despite the government is in a “dialogue mode” with them over the power project. Nasrul Hamid Bipu yesterday told reporters that government was trying to convince the environmentalists that the project will not do any harm to the environment. Environmentalists maintain that the power project will cause massive and irreparable damages to the flora, fauna and ecology of the Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is also a home to the Royal Bengal Tiger.
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Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.
Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.