Bangla govt seeks loans for power plants

The government of Bangladesh is looking for loans to fund power projects of a total capacity of 14,773 megawatts by 2015 due to dwindling foreign aid.

Power division secretary Abul Kalam Azad said  that the power projects required about US $20 billion worth of investments, which Bangladesh cannot afford to mobilise at present.

It will appoint contractors to arrange funds from domestic and foreign sources, which the government will repay with interest.

The authorities concerned are willing to accept supplier’s credit or buyer’s credit or even hard loans to put up the plants, power division sources said.

“If someone borrows the money, we will definitely repay it,” he said. “We will select the bidders through open tendering to arrange the money to implement the generation, transmission and distribution projects,” the secretary added.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has cleared this approach for power project loans.

According to sources, the authorities concerned are likely to allow hard loans to implement the power projects and, for this to happen, they would even secure the clearance of the hard term loan committee, if necessary.
The government is currently implementing 41 power plants, including rental and quick rental power plants of 4,504MW, at a cost of Tk. 28,000 crore.

Of the projects, 14 rental power plants of 1,148MW capacity have been commissioned and rest are nearing completion. At present, the country is facing a daily shortage of at least 2,000MW affecting all spheres of life including agriculture and industry.

The country generates about 4,900MW against the demand for 6,900MW and officials of the state-owned Power Development Board apprehend that the demand will go up to 7,200 MW in the near future.