The Cabinet Purchase Committee on Wednesday approved a total of nine proposals, including one from Power Division to import additional 30-50 MW electricity from Indian private sector.

The approval was given at a meeting of the Cabinet body held with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.

As per the Power Division proposal, the state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will import the additional electricity from the Indian open market at a variable market price regulated by the Indian energy regulatory commission.

In this case, each unit of electricity (per kilowatt hour) may cost about Rs 4.18 or equivalent to Tk 5.14. At present, the government is importing electricity totalling 500 MW power from India with 250 MW from public sector at about Tk 4.15 per unit and another 250 MW from private sector at about Tk 5.25 per unit.

The Cabinet body also approved a proposal of the Power Division for introducing a dual fuel system at 150 MW Shikalbaha peaking power plant at a cost of Tk 260.69 crore.

Roads and Highway Department’s tender proposal to construct a total of four bridges and one overpass on rail gate under Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project also got the approval of the committee.

The Cabinet body approved Education Ministry’s tender proposal for purchasing 2,831 laptops and as many multimedia systems at a cost of Tk 33.08 crore.

A proposal of the Food Ministry to import 50,000 metric tons of wheat was also approved by the committee.

UNB/NS