Energy-hungry Bangladesh has signed a US$1.7 billion deal with India to build two coal-fired power plants in the country’s south to ease a huge electricity shortage, an official said yesterday.
The two plants, which will have a total daily capacity of 1,320 megawatts, will help alleviate the severe power shortfalls suffered by impoverished Bangladesh.
The plants will be constructed by Dhaka’s Power Development Board and India’s National Thermal Power Corp and be ready in three years, Dhaka Power Development Board spokesman Bazlul Haque said.
The two companies, both state-owned, will share the US$1.7 billion cost of building the plants, which will be managed by the Indian company and will use imported coal, Haque said.
Officials from the two countries signed the agreement in Dhaka late on Friday, he said, adding that a four-month feasibility study will be carried out before construction starts in July.
Bangladesh has long suffered severe power outages due to demands imposed by its fast-growing economy.
The power shortfall is especially acute in the hot summer months between April and October.
Years of under-investment mean Bangladesh’s state-owned power plants generate about 4,000 megawatts of electricity a day, while demand sits at 6,000 megawatts, a figure growing by 500 megawatts a year because of increasing industrialization.
The deal highlights Dhaka’s improving ties with New Delhi under its new secular government led by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party, Bangladesh analysts say.
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