“If the Cox’s Bazar district administration fails to acquire and handover the land to the Power Division by December, 2013, a possible loan deal with JICA might not see the light of the day for the $4.3 billion project,” an official concerned said.
The loan deal is expected to be signed on March, 2014, the official informed. He said the Chittagong Divisional Commissioner can allow to the Cox’s Bazar Deputy Commissioner’s (DC) Office to appoint some 10 Land Acquisition Officers on temporary basis with the permission of the Ministry of Land to settle the land disputes for implementing the JICA-funded project.
The DC office would require holding separate hearing for each complaint and then compensate the land owners as per the law, he said, adding that it would not be possible to settle all the land disputes with the existing manpower of the local administration of Cox’s Bazar. Additional manpower is must on temporary basis to settle the disputes, officials said.
Bangladesh is expected to get the JICA loan for implementing the critical power project, under which a multipurpose deep seaport will be set up along with infrastructure development in the area.
The project cost of the coal-fired power plant is $1.4 billion higher compared to that of the planned Padma Bridge, the country’s largest infrastructure project.
The government is planning to sign the loan deal in March next year and then appoint a consultant firm between July and August to install the plant.
Officials informed that the interest rate of the JICA loan would be 0.01 percent.
Electricity production cost at the plant would be between Tk 6.0 and Tk 6.20 per unit, official said, adding that the physical work of the plant is scheduled to start in 2016-17, which will be ended by 2022.
The costs of the construction of the power plant and necessary infrastructure including transmission lines, jetty, road and tunnel have been accumulated in the estimated project outlay.
The government will import coal from Indonesia, Mozambique or Australia for the plant. The carbon emission rate at the plant will be only 0.9 tonne, which ranges between 0.6 and 0.8 tonnes at the gas-fired power plants, an interim study on the proposed plant suggests.
Last year, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) sought approval to a proposal for setting up two mega coal-fired power plants in Moheskhali Island to generate 2,640MW electricity.
The government also planned to set up a series of power plants to generate some 8,320MW electricity using 5000 acres of land in Moheskhali Island.
Of the plants, the government would set up coal-fired power plants to produce 5,320MW electricity. The rest 3000MW electricity will come from gas-fired plants, the BPDB secretary said.
The BPDB, in cooperation with Malaysian state-owned Tenega Nasional Berhad (TNB), would also set up one of the coal-fired power plants in Moheskhali and the signing of Memorandum of Understanding will be held on October 2, 2013 here. Earlier, Qatar proposed the government to set up a 1,000-megawatt gas-based power plant under a joint-venture initiative.
The government has a plan to set up series of coal-fired power projects having capacity to generate 20000MW electricity by 2030.
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