The Chinese firm in charge of completing the transmission project to facilitate electricity evacuation from the proposed Payra coal-fired power plant to Rampal power station has clandestinely left the country. The local partners of the company are reportedly in serious trouble since the CMC did not clear its arrears with them.
A report in a national daily on Tuesday said that a special joint venture company of Bangladesh’s state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Ltd (NWPGCL) and the China’s CMC has been constructing the 1,320 MW Payra thermal power plant at a cost of about US$2 billion. But the transmission facilities project is still far behind the schedule, which may ultimately impede the power evacuation from the Payra plant.
Sources at the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), which is responsible for implementing the project, admitted that they had to suspend the schedule on several occasions for a number of reasons. For the construction of the Mongla-Khulna portion of the 230 KV double circuit transmission line, one of the several other transmission lines, the PGCB had signed a contract worth Tk 46.25 crore with the Chinese company.
Meanwhile, the local contracting firms said that they were paid Tk 26 crore out of Tk 36 crore as of today. They are now getting in touch with both the Chinese company and the PGCB for the remaining amount but are not getting any suitable response. However, the Chinese company left the country in October without completing the project.
The other transmission lines include construction of 160 KM 400KV double circuit transmission line from Payra plant to Gopalganj, and 164.6KM Aminbazar-Mawa-Gopalganj-Mongla 400KV double circuit line, installation of 400/132KV, and construction of 9.4KM river crossing line beside Padma Bridge and installation of substation (400KV portion) at Aminbazar with 3×520 MVA transformers.
There is a great concern for delays and cost overruns as most of the public construction projects are implemented in our country with our money. It seems everybody find it easy to have a share in looting our money.
