India is pushing for setting up another joint venture coal-based power plant in Chittagong while Bangladesh is reluctant to go for the project for now, sources in the power, energy and mineral resources ministry said. Bangladesh is unwilling to go ahead with the 1,320-MW plant in Chittagong as the Rampal coal-based power plant project has drawn criticism from different quarters, they said. The Indian proposal for the joint venture between an Indian state-owned company and the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will be tabled at a meeting of the joint steering committee (JSC) of India and Bangladesh on power today.  The power secretaries of the two countries will lead the meeting, a government official said.
“We are unwilling to go for the proposed 1,320-MW coal-based power plant in Chittagong as the Rampal project has already drawn controversy, with environmentalists claiming that the plant would destroy the ecology of the Sundarbans, a UNESCO world heritage site,” a JSC member told The Independent requesting not to be named.
Asked about the reason for Bangladesh’s reluctance, the official said the government is not interested to have any more joint ventures with India at present, as its target is to complete the Rampal project by 2020.
The Rampal project contains equal shares of two state-owned companies of the two countries.
A power ministry official said the government has already given green signal to set up some power plants by Indian Reliance and Adani Group in Chittagong and Meghnaghat, and the BPDB is working on it.
“At this moment, the BPDB is not interested in any other Indian proposal,” he affirmed.
Reliance is going to build a LNG-based 3,000-MW power plant in Maheshkhali and Meghnaghat. The Adani Group is setting up a coal-based 1,600-MW power plant in the Indian part of Jharkhand. Adani will send the power to Bangladesh through a 50-km grid line.
The proposed price is close to Tk 8 per unit, a BPDB official told The Independent. But from Bangladesh’s side, the JSC will seek help from India to set up a 1,125-MW hydro power plant at Monger Gola in Bhutan. Bangladesh needs a corridor facility to import the Bhutanese power. A government official said without India’s consent, the project would not see the light. Meanwhile, Bangladesh will import 500MW more power through the Bahrupur border. The issue will be discussed at today’s meeting.
The BPDB and India’s NTPC had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2010 for building the Rampal power plant. 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.