Problem arises in evacuation project

 

Bangladesh News Desk
With the vital power-evacuation
project getting into trouble, uncer-
tainty hovers over commissioning of
the maiden nuclear power plant in
Bangladesh even after its completion.

Sources say transmission facilities
may remain incomplete following
problem with the evacuation project
funding as India has delisted it from
credit line.

The government signed a $1.06 bil-
lion loan agreement under LoC-3 with
India in 2017 to implement the
7 power-evacuation project to facilitate
power transmission from the two-unit
2400MW Rooppur Nuclear Power
Plant (RNPP).

The project was scheduled to end
within 2022 to be able to transmit
power from the 1200MW RNPP Unit-
1, which is expected to be ready by the
first half of 2023.

But awarding contract for the
largest and critical component of this
st project known as package -6 has yet to
be done, triggering apprehension that
RNPP may remain idle even after
RNPP Power
at completion. The
Evacuation Project has been divided
into several packages of which the
of biggest one is the Package-6 under
which power-transmission lines will
be built across rivers Padma and
Jamuna. The estimated cost of this
part is 500 million US dollars.
Package 6 was included in the
LoC-3 and India opted for domestic
bidding to award the contract only to
Indian firms.
But, officials said, the bidding
process took a long time and finally
the implementing agency, Power Grid
Company of Bangladesh (PGCB),
decided to scrap the Indian funding
for this component. When contacted.
PGCB Managing Director Golam
Kibria told the FE that the evaluation
of the tender for the project is com-
pleted and now they are waiting for
the government nod to the mode of
the financing.