India to establish 240MW power plant in Bangladesh

DHAKA, BANGLADESH - An Indian company will set up two power plants in Bangladesh's Narayanganj district, 20 km southeast of capital Dhaka, with generation capacity 120 mw each which would supply power to the national grid during peak hours, Bangladeshi official news agency BSS reported recently.

Bharat Heavy Electric Company Limited (BHEL) will implement the project by 2008 at a cost of 11.33 billion taka (about 162 million US dollars) and hand over the plants to the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (ECGB), an enterprise of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

An agreement to this effect has been signed here recently. Executive Director of BHEL Rabindra K Belapukar and secretary of EGCB Kazi Nazrul Islam signed the contract on behalf of their respective sides.

The project will be financed jointly by the Bangladeshi government and Asian Development Bank while KEMA international, a Dutch company, will work as a technical consultant, EGCB sources said.

The national grid will get 240 megawatts additional power during the peak hours on completion of the project.

The Energy Adviser Tapan Chowdhury assured the Indian company of taking initiatives to hand over lands for the project as early as possible so that it could be commissioned for power generation within earliest time.