Anisul Islam Noor :
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) expressed its annoyance with the Power Division for delaying in finalizing the plan for construction of a jetty at Mattarbari in Cox’s Bazar for coal based power plant.
The Shipping Ministry signed a MoU with the Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited
(CPGCBL) on July 7 in 2014 for construction of the jetty.
It is required for unloading coal to be imported for the 1200MW power plant at Matarbari in Cox’s Bazar
The JICA informed it to power division last week, sources said. The JICA is financing the project.
To generate 1200MW of power in a day at least 70,000 tonnes of coal are to be imported. A large amount of coal will be unloaded from ships everyday at the site.
The Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources has been pushing for finalising the deal for the jetty.
But the Shipping Ministry is allegedly delaying in doing so. The Energy Division on February 2 wrote to the secretary of the Shipping Ministry in this connection.
The Energy Division Secretary, Abu Bakar Siddique, requested the secretary of the Shipping Ministry and the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) to finalise the agreement. The coal -based power plant on top of the fast track list of the present Awami League government which the Prime Minister herself is monitoring.
Since it is the first coal based power plant in the country, the Power Division officials want to implement it as quick as possible. The project is supposed to go into generation by 2020, said an official of the Energy Division.
The CPGCBL was established as a public limited company registered under the Companies Act, 1994 on 5th September 2011 to implement large projects of coal-based power plants in the country. The government has set a goal to generate 11,000MW of electricity from coal by 2021.
Primarily the company is to construct a 2X600 MW coal-fired power plant at Matarbari and Dhalghata Union in Maheshkhali Upazilla of Cox’s Bazar District.
The project comprises construction of a jetty and coal handling facilities, coal storage, power plant construction, township development, rural electrification and construction of transmission facilities and road communication.
