Cabinet approves 660MW power plant project in Munshiganj

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase approved eight proposals, including setting up of a 660-megawatt power plant at Gazaria upazila of Munshiganj, to meet the country's ever growing demand for electricity.

The approval came from a meeting of the committee held virtually on Sunday with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.

Briefing reporters virtually after the meeting, Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Md Shamsul Arefin said the cabinet committee approved the proposal of Bangladesh Power Development Board under the Power Division to build the gas or LNG-based combined cycle power plant at Meghnaghat area of the upazila, which will supply the electricity to the national grid for 22 years.

The consortium – Edra Power Holdings Sdn Bhd, Malaysia and Winnievision Power Ltd, Bangladesh – placed the proposal to implement the project, he also said.

Shamsul Arefin also said the meeting also approved another proposal of the power development board to extend the existing contract for five years -  17 March 21 to 16 June 2026 - to import 160MW power from NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited of Tripura, India.

As per approval, he said the tariff will be Tk7.13852 per kilowatt hour and about Tk4,188.78 crore will have to be paid in five years.

Shamsul Arefin said the meeting also approved the proposal of procuring 30,000 tonnes of bagged granular urea fertiliser from Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited.

The meeting also approved the proposals to import 30,000 tonnes of bulk granular urea fertilizer from Muntajat, Qatar and 30,000 tonnes of bulk granular urea fertiliser from Saudi Basic Industries Corporation through the national agreement.

Shamsul Arefin said the meeting also approved the proposal of procuring 20 lakh novel coronavirus RT-PCR diagnostic kits under three lots from Sterling Multi Technologies Ltd in Dhaka, OMC (Pvt) Ltd Dhaka and GS Biotech in Narayanganj at a cost of Tk117.41 crore.

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase also approved the proposal of procuring two bollard pool tugboats and necessary equipment and services from the Khulna Shipyard Limited at a cost of Tk131.73 crore.

He said the committee approved the proposal for printing, binding and supply of free textbooks in five lots of Bengali and English versions for the primary level (3rd, 4th and 5th class) from Press Line Limited, Dhaka, Letter n Colour, Dhaka and Sedna Printing Press and Publications, Dhaka at a cost of Tk8.06 crore.