Staff Reporter :The government needs $30 billion fund to invest in the power sector to increase per capita power generation from 300 kilowatts to 650 kilowatts in the next few years.Power Division has sought the fund to implement highly ambitious power project for reducing dependency on small rental and short contacted power plant to meet the growing power demand.Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has signed around 100 agreements with local and foreign farms so far for setting up power plants since 2019.As part of Power Sector Master Plan-2010, the BPDB signed agreements with several private sector entrepreneurs aiming to set up load-based big and permanent power plants, which will generate gas and coal-fired electricity at lower cost.The government is planning to issue bonds soon to mobilise fund from the international capital market to implement projects in the power sector, State Minister for Power and Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told The New Nation.Under the plan, he said, an amount of $500 million bond will be issued initially by the state-owned Power Development Board (PDB).Nasrul Hamid recently discussed the issue with the representatives of different international banks, including Citi Bank NA, Standard Chartered and HSBC, at Biduyt Bhaban in the city.Besides, the government is mulling Chinese assistance for various development projects costing about $14.154.736 billion.An official at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) told the reporter that a process is underway for receiving Chinese assistance for 18 projects including System Loss reduction by replacing 5 million Electro Mechanical Energy Meter with Electronic Energy Meter ($ 165.98 million), expansion and strengthening of power system network under DPDC (2038.06 million). The loan application has been sent to Chinese authorities for their consideration.Some big power projects awarded to local farm Summit Group and Orion Group but both groups failed schedule of construction of the power plants.
