The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Thursday approved eight procurement proposals, including setting up of a 42.5MW waste to energy power project in Dhaka.
In another meeting, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved a proposal in principle to set up six rice mills in Faridpur, Barishal, Jhalakathi, Bhola, Naogaon and Sylhet under public-private partnership (PPP).
The project was titled “Construction of Composite Rice Mill(s) along with Drying and Storage facilities at different strategic locations across the Country”.
The power project will be implemented under a tripartite agreement where Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) will supply a certain quantity of solid municipal waste and lands. China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) will set up the plant on a build-own-operate basis. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will purchase electricity for a 25-year period at US $21.78 cents (equivalent to Tk 18.295) per unit.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting which was attended by the members of the committee, mainly senior ministers.
While briefing the media, Cabinet Division’s Additional Secretary Dr Abu Saleh said the government has to spend Tk 15,325.43 crore to buy electricity from the project over a period of 25 years.
Recently, the Power Secretary has noted that a similar project is now being implemented in Narayanganj in collaboration with the Narayanganj City Corporation, which will generate 6MW.
The officials said the Chinese firm was selected as the sponsor under an unsolicited process, which will set up the plant at Amin Bazar on incineration-based technology.
The place is now being used by DNCC as a dumping station for its municipal waste.
Heat generated from burning the solid waste will be used to produce power, officials said, adding that such projects are already available in China and many other Asian countries.
Several initiatives were previously taken to generate power from solid waste in the last 20 years, but none was implemented.
Fertiliser import gets nod Five proposals from the Industries Ministry to import fertiliser received a nod from the Cabinet body.
As per the proposals, the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation, under the Industries Ministry, will import 75,000 metric tonnes of urea fertilisers in three lots of the same quantity from Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC).
Each metric ton of urea will cost $264 and the total import cost will be about Tk 168.201 crore.
The BCIC will also import another 50,000MT bagged granular urea through an international quotation from Singapore Overseas Enterprise in two separate lots in equal quantity at a total cost of Tk 133.7324 crore. Each metric ton of urea will cost between $300.7 and $314.85.
The cabinet committee also approved the import of 180,000MT of muriate of potash (MOP) fertiliser by Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporate (BADC) from Russian JSC Foreign Economic Association “Prodintorg” at a cost of Tk 341.37 crore.
Meanwhile, a proposal of Roads and Highways Department received the Cabinet body nod for awarding the contract to Wahida Construction Ltd for constructing 1km bridge on Bhairab River in Khulna at Dighalia-Arua-Gazirhat-Terkhada road at a cost of Tk 302.78 crore.
