Review body formed to probe power projects delay

The Power Division has formed a 'review committee' to know the valid causes of the delay in project implementation despite government plans to generate around 832 MW of electricity by December 2018 from the power
projects.
Joint Secretary (Development) Fayzul Amin was made the convener of the committee and has been asked to submit report within next three weeks.
"All these projects were on priority list, so we need to know the real cause although it would not hamper our irrigation plan," a senior official of the Power Division told the Daily Observer on Tuesday.
He said, "We have identified eight power projects having a capacity of 832 MW electricity generation have failed to make any notable progress. We sat with them and found out of nine we could review the progress of five projects but other three projects are facing serious problems."
State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid, Power Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus, Bangladesh Power Development Board Chairman Khaled Mahmud and senior officials attended the meeting.
"Out of these eight projects, Basila 180 MW and Gabtoli 108 MW are crawling to close its financial book. They failed to manage the loan to complete the projects," according to the Power Division.
We are going to review Chandpur-115 MW, Chumuhoni-113, Feni-114, Meghnaghat-104 and Thakurgaon-115, and consider Fenchuganj-55 MW projects for next 45 days, as it is waiting to sign the gas purchase agreement with a gas company. The fate of Bosila and Gabtoli is bleak, the Power Division official said.
According to the Power Division, the progress of nine other mega power projects having capacity to generate 1,130 MW of electricity is wearisome.
The mega projects were planned by the government for creating a sustainable economy. All these HFO based projects were initiated in 2017.
"Out of eight, only two power plants have managed to show better progress and achieved target while the others are lagging far behind schedules," said officials concerned.
The projects include the Confidence Power Holdings sponsored 113 MW HFO based Bagura Power Plant, Bangla Trac Ltd sponsored 200 MW Baghabari Diesel-Fired Power Plant, 100 MW Gazipur Power Plant sponsored by Hubei Electric Power Survey and Design Institute, 162 MW Manikganj HFO based power plant sponsored by Consortium of Changzhou Hutang Coal Power and Icon Enterprise Ltd, 100 MW Madhumati Power Plant, 105 MW Sikalbahi HFO based power plant sponsored by Baraka Patenga Power Plant yet to come into operation despite scheduled to commence by 2018.
 200 MW Baghabari costly HSD based power plant was scheduled to come into operation by December 2018. But, the power plant got only 85 per cent physical progress till filing of this report on Monday. Besides, the 113 MW Confidence Power Holdings sponsored power plant achieved 94 per cent progress despite scheduled to start operation on November 30 in 2018.
100 MW Garipur Power Plant was scheduled to start electricity generation by December 2018 which is now expected to go into production by February in 2019 with 66.2 per cent of physical progress so far made. The 105 MW Sikalbaha Power Plant owners are expected to start commissioning the power plant by mid-March of 2019.
But officials expressed their hope and said that most of the fast track power plants will come into generation by mid-April.