Coal news and updates

A joint venture of four companies, two from Japan, signed an agreement with the government’s Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited on Wednesday.

 

Japan is helping power-starved Bangladesh build its biggest-ever power project at Maheshkhali as part of its Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B) initiative, a “guiding principle” of its bilateral development partnership in this region.

 

Bangladesh put the project on the “fast-track” list, which means Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself would monitor its implementation.

 

Company Secretary of the government’s coal power generation company Mizanur Rahman and project manager of the joint venture Hiroto Itagaki signed the agreement for consultancy services costing more than Tk 6.229 billion.

 

State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid Bipu, JICA Senior Representative in Dhaka office Kei Toyama, and senior government officials and the consultancy group were present during the signing of the 108-month consultancy services.

 

Under the agreement, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Services Co Ltd, Nippon Koei Co Ltd, Germany’s Fichtner GmbH & Co KG, and Australia’s SMEC International Pty Ltd would be responsible for a range of activities, including the designing and construction supervision of the project comprising two plants of 600 megawatts each.

 

They will also monitor environmental issues up to the “defect liability period”. This means, they will fix defects, if any, arising after construction until a stipulated time.

 

Japan will finance almost the whole of the Tk 360 billion project at Maheshkhali amid criticism of environment campaigners against the use of coal.

 

But both Bangladesh and Japan say they will adopt state-of-the-art ultra-super critical technologies and the efficiency level would be as high as 45 percent, ensuring CO2 emission levels well below those in many developed countries.

 

Once implemented, the project will change the landscape of the impoverished Maheshkhali area, near Cox’s Bazar, as it would develop a township with strong road communication to capital Dhaka.

 

The project, which the state minister for power said the government aimed to complete much ahead of its 2022 schedule, would build a deep-sea port 18 metres deep with navigation channel of 1.2km.

 

It would have improved coal-handling as well as storage facilities.

 

“It’s a prestigious project for us,” Bipu said speaking at the signing. “It would be a giant leap for Bangladesh’s further development”.

 

“We want to see it ready during our tenure,” he said, urging all to expedite work.

 

JICA official Toyama said the Matarbarhi project was the “very flagship” of Japan’s BIG-B initiative.

 

He said Japan, through BIG-B, expected Bangladesh to take advantage of its “linchpin” position between South Asia and South-East Asia and play the role of a regional “node and hub”.

 

That, he said, would “reshape Bangladesh as a sparkling trading nation which is deeply incorporated into the global value chain”.

 

He said the Matarbarhi deep-sea port, once implemented, could be expanded to construct “a coal centre” for other upcoming coal-fired power plants, an LNG terminal and even a container terminal for manufacturing industries.

 

“JICA is preparing a comprehensive master plan for this future expansion as well as the launching of a new study from this month for potential public-private partnership for a coal transhipment terminal at the deep-sea port.”

 

But Toyama urged all ministries and authorities to make “concerted efforts” to expedite the process to complete the project in time, saying it took extra three months to get the draft contract for the consulting services approved.

 

The state minister, however, said “it’s a high-priority project for us. We took it very seriously”.

 

Power Secretary Monowar Islam echoed the minister and said their target was to complete it ahead of the schedule.

 

“We want to see at least one unit (600 megawatt) by 2018.”

 

General Manager of the Overseas Business Center of the Tokyo Electric Power Services Co. Ltd Yasuyuki Shimada said this was not the first project of the companies that tied up.

 

His own company’s first experience of working in Bangladesh was 30 years ago in the Kaptai hydroelectric power project.

 

“Our partners (Fichtner, Nippon Koei and SMEC) also have many project experiences in Bangladesh.”

 

Shimada said they felt it was their “responsibility” to help Bangladesh overcome its electricity shortage.

 

“Today’s signing ceremony means the real start of our work,” he said.

 

 

Source:  bdnews24.com