REPORT in a national daily said the government has decided to launch road shows in Japan and South Korea to garner loan for controversial Rampal power project as major financiers — World Bank and ADB — are indifferent to financing the environmentally risky plant near Sundarbans. Following the failure of equity funding arrangement between Dhaka and New Delhi, the Bangladesh government is now looking for foreign commercial loans at high interest and decided to hold road shows to harness investment. Green activists firmly opined that the thermal power project would destroy the world’s largest mangrove forest; which provides shield from natural calamity and livelihood to thousands of people. UNESCO has already asked the government to relocate the power plant to save Sundarbans, else its name would be moved out to World’s most endangered heritage list. But it appears that the government remains quite unmoved to such concerns from home and abroad. The project is estimated to cost US$1.68 billion and it may further go up with environment impact assessment cost. As per Bangladesh-India agreement, 70 percent of the project cost would come from multilateral lending agencies while the remaining 30 percent to be equal shared by the two joint venture partners. Many may question here as to why Bangladesh is tying to a highly controversial project for only 15 percent direct Indian investment when it remains the most destructive power project closer to Sundarbans and opposed locally and globally. Only the government can say why it is so adamant to move with the project. Green activists in their Dhaka Declaration in May last has publicly urged the international financial institutions to rule out financing the coal-fired Rampal power plant. There is a common argument that the project may be relocated to save Sundarbans because man can’t create another Sundarbans to fit to the nature. Some news reports said many global lenders want a separate safety clause in financing agreement of the project in view of its uncertain future from stiff opposition by local and international groups. There is no secret to the fact that during the cyclone Sidr and Aila in 2007 and 2009 Sundarbans protected the coastal part of Bangladesh and West Bengal; which could otherwise be severely hit. People are also skeptical in Bangladesh as to why India is so serious to set up the power plant ignoring local and international protests. The fact is that people are not opposed to India-Bangladesh Joint Venture Plant here; they demand its relocation to a distant site. Even with the given environmental laws and activism in India, the Indian government can never dare to set up a giant power plant closer to Sundarbans in West Bengal. Then why they are not recipient to our sentiment is the big question. It is advisable that the government should not accept such a big power plant for only 15 percent direct Indian investment in it. Moreover, it stop the road show until a review of the contact and relocation of the plant away from the Sundarbans area.
