France to give 100m euros to upgrade Dhaka power distribution network

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Business Reporter :
Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the French development agency, is set to provide Bangladesh with a 100 million euro (Tk850 crore) loan for establishing a stronger and more reliable electricity network in Dhaka.
The money will be spent for strengthening power distribution network in areas under Dhaka South City Corporation.
The loan agreement will be signed with the Economic Relations Division under the Ministry of Finance on June 1.
Under the Power System Expansion and Efficiency Improvement Investment Programme (PSEEIIP), AFD will fund construction of 14 new sub-stations – seven 132/33kV sub-stations and seven 33/11kV sub-stations – as well as electric lines.
Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) will be responsible for implementing this part of the project.
AFD has teamed up with Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to finance the PSEEIIP.
The objective of this ambitious project is to modernise and strengthen both production and distribution capacities of the country’s power system.
After the Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport Project and Dhaka Environmentally Sustainable Water Supply Project, the PSEEIIP is the third major project in Bangladesh financed by AFD.
The AFD fund will significantly upgrade the capacity and stability of DPDC network as the frequency of power outage in Dhaka south will be minimised and power distribution will become more reliable.
It is estimated that living conditions of 1.25 million households will be improved once the project is implemented.
The project will take electricity to 225,000 homes which are now deprived of legal power connections, thus stimulating social and economic empowerment of the low-income communities there.
DPDC is one of the country’s largest distribution companies and is in charge of distributing electricity to the southern part of the capital. It covers 21% of the total region of Dhaka and provides around 2,000MW of electricity every day.
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