Anisul Islam Noor :
Bangladesh seeks Indian cooperation to import power from Nepal and Bhutan and to implement Rampal Coal power plant.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told it to Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran at the secretariat office on Sunday.
In response, Mr. Pankaj said, India will provide all out cooperations to Bangladesh in importing power and to increase generation of electricity.
They also discussed about the progress of projects including Rampal Power Plant, Bheramara -Bohrampur interconnection, Cross border power trade, 800 KW DC multi -terminal by poll line, LNG import through pipeline and joint investment in power and energy sector.
The government is determined to implement the project and formed the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Pvt Ltd (BIFPLC), to develop the Rampal project. Two 660MW supercritical units will be set up to burn 4.72 million tonnes of imported coal each year.
On the other hand, the civil society members, different political organisations and some studies said that the project would pose a serious threat to the environment of the Sundarbans which
would be diverse and permanent. They have demanded cancellation of all the initiatives of the project to save the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world.
They also raised question over Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports prepared under government’s patronization.
An international organisation has raised serious questions about the Rampal coal-fired power plant, saying it does not maintain the minimum social and environmental standards.
“The project poses significant adverse social and environmental risks and impacts that are diverse and irreversible,” said Bank Track, a Netherlands-based coalition of organisations “targeting the operations and investments of private sector banks and their effect on people and the planet”.
The Rampal plant is located just 14 kilometres upstream of the Sundarbans Reserve Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
India’s largest coal power company National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has formed a joint venture, with Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) on 50:50 share basis.
A tender for the project’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract has been invited and the bidding is due in this year.
Green activists fear that the plant would lead to its environmental degradation from increased ship traffic, dredging, and air and water pollution.
Coal-fired thermal power plants will belch toxic gases that could impact wildlife and human health, and forest quality in the neighbourhood, leading the country’s many environmentalists to continue their call to scrap the plant.
Bank Track has based its analysis on the Equator Principles (EP), an environmental and social risk management framework for financial institutions, and found that the project fails to comply with six of the 10 principles of the EP.
The coal will be transported by a fleet of vessels travelling along a route that cuts directly through the Sundarbans for a distance of approximately 67 kilometres. It is estimated that 59 ships will make the voyage each year to meet the plant’s coal requirement. All ships will anchor at Akram Point — located within the Sundarbans — where massive loads of coal will be offloaded to smaller vessels, running the risk of coal spillage and toxic coal dust being released into the environment, Bank Track warned.
Bangladesh seeks Indian cooperation to import power from Nepal and Bhutan and to implement Rampal Coal power plant.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told it to Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran at the secretariat office on Sunday.
In response, Mr. Pankaj said, India will provide all out cooperations to Bangladesh in importing power and to increase generation of electricity.
They also discussed about the progress of projects including Rampal Power Plant, Bheramara -Bohrampur interconnection, Cross border power trade, 800 KW DC multi -terminal by poll line, LNG import through pipeline and joint investment in power and energy sector.
The government is determined to implement the project and formed the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Pvt Ltd (BIFPLC), to develop the Rampal project. Two 660MW supercritical units will be set up to burn 4.72 million tonnes of imported coal each year.
On the other hand, the civil society members, different political organisations and some studies said that the project would pose a serious threat to the environment of the Sundarbans which
would be diverse and permanent. They have demanded cancellation of all the initiatives of the project to save the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world.
They also raised question over Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports prepared under government’s patronization.
An international organisation has raised serious questions about the Rampal coal-fired power plant, saying it does not maintain the minimum social and environmental standards.
“The project poses significant adverse social and environmental risks and impacts that are diverse and irreversible,” said Bank Track, a Netherlands-based coalition of organisations “targeting the operations and investments of private sector banks and their effect on people and the planet”.
The Rampal plant is located just 14 kilometres upstream of the Sundarbans Reserve Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
India’s largest coal power company National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has formed a joint venture, with Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) on 50:50 share basis.
A tender for the project’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract has been invited and the bidding is due in this year.
Green activists fear that the plant would lead to its environmental degradation from increased ship traffic, dredging, and air and water pollution.
Coal-fired thermal power plants will belch toxic gases that could impact wildlife and human health, and forest quality in the neighbourhood, leading the country’s many environmentalists to continue their call to scrap the plant.
Bank Track has based its analysis on the Equator Principles (EP), an environmental and social risk management framework for financial institutions, and found that the project fails to comply with six of the 10 principles of the EP.
The coal will be transported by a fleet of vessels travelling along a route that cuts directly through the Sundarbans for a distance of approximately 67 kilometres. It is estimated that 59 ships will make the voyage each year to meet the plant’s coal requirement. All ships will anchor at Akram Point — located within the Sundarbans — where massive loads of coal will be offloaded to smaller vessels, running the risk of coal spillage and toxic coal dust being released into the environment, Bank Track warned.
