The much-debated 350MW power plant on 350 acres of farmland in Gazaria Upazila of Munshiganj is going to be built through a deal with Chinese companies.
The deal might be closed by the end of January, officials with the Rural Power Company Limited (RPCL), the project’s state-owned implementing agency, told The Independent.
However, Abdus Sabur, managing director of RPCL, said a tender process for awarding engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts might be ‘selective’. “The plant is going to be constructed with a soft loan of Tk 500 crore with a 2 per cent interest rate from the Chinese government. So, it is going to select the EPC contractor for the project.”
He said that the Chinese counterpart of the project had already told them they would send the name of the EPC contractor by the first week of January. “They might send us a few names instead of one. We'll then ask for request for proposal (RFP) from them,” he added.
Sabur said they had fixed the issues regarding the land acquisition for the plant. 
Earlier, the plan to set up the power plant on farmland stirred a controversy as the government had already readied a draft bill, to be enacted into a law, prohibiting the use of crop land for other purposes.
Sabur, however, said that the 350 acre land that had been chosen was mostly infertile. “Some lands in the proposed area are one-crop land and the rest are barren,” he noted.
He also said the site had been chosen especially because of its proximity to a river, which would ensure an easy transport of coal. Besides, the government intended to establish a planned industrial zone in the district, making it necessary to have a power plant for the industrial complex, he added.
“The land issue is now resolved, and we are already talking with the Bangladesh Navy for dredging and land development for the plant,” said Sabur.
The government has a plan to set up a series of coal-based power projects to generate 20,000MW of electricity by 2030. The Power Division has already set a 2,730MW of electricity target for RPCL by the year 2030.
The RPCL was the first independent power producer (IPP) of Bangladesh. It has opened a new dimension of power generation in the Bangladesh private sector because its 100 per cent equity investment has been mobilised locally.