Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL) on Tuesday inked a US $1.56 billion contract with a Chinese consortium for Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) to build a 1,320MW capacity coal-fired power plant near the Payra Sea Port in Patuakhali.
BCPCL is a 50-50 joint venture between the state-run North-West Power Generation Company of Bangladesh and China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation. The Chinese consortium won the contract as a lone bidder. Dipak Kumar Dhali, company secretary of BCPCL, and Cai Ming, President of NEPC and Chen Yuyu signed the contract on behalf of the respective sides.
The 660 MW first unit of the power plant at Payra is expected to start generation electricity from June, 2019. Six months later, the second unit of the same capacity would start power supply.
The EPC contractor will arrange $1.56 billion finance from the Chinese banking system as credit.
BCPCL is expecting to sell each unit of electricity from the plant at Tk 6.65 to the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), official sources said. The company estimated the possible price of electricity considering the supply cost of coal up to the project site at $100 per tonne. The power company will spend Tk 26 crore as corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the people of the region and rehabilitation the people whose lands were acquired for the power plant. Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Prime Minister’s Energy Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi
Chowdhury, State Minister for , Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, Ministry’s Parliamentary Standing Committee Chairman Md Tajul Islam, Principal Secretary to the PM’s Office Md Abul Kalam Azad, Power Division Secretary Monwar Islam, Energy Division Secretary Nazimuddin Chowdhury, and Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Ma Mingqiang among others, attended the function.
Nasrul Hamid said that at least $40 billion investment would be required in power sector by 2030.
“We would offload shares of the successful power projects to raise funds,” he said. Chinese Ambassador Ma Mingqiang said that Chinese people are coming here as an investor, not for contractor.
“We want to be a partner for Bangladesh to reach the target of middle income country” he said.
