State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said yesterday the government has been working for ensuring cent percent electricity coverage in the country by 2017.
He said this while visiting the construction work of 100 megawatt High speed Furnace Oil (HFO) based power station at Amnura in Chapainawabganj Sadar upazila yesterday.
The state minister said with a view to meeting up the demand of electricity for a long term, the government has taken up plan to construct coal-based power stations in the country instead of oil-based power plants.
Deputy commissioner M Jahidul Islam, distribution member of Power Development Board (PDB) engineer Sheikh M Alauddin, chief engineer of PDB M Hazrat Ali, superintending engineers Abdur Rashid and Rakibul Islam, project director Arifur Rahman, executive engineer Zakir Hossain were present on the occasion.
The power station is being constructed at a cost of Tk 795 crore with the assistance of Chinese Hubei Electric Power Survey and Design Institution, PDB sources said.
The sources added that the commercial operation of the plant would be started from March 23 in 2017.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction work of the power station on May 16 last year.