Govt invites tenders on infrastructure building for power import from India

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M Azizur Rahman
The government has invited tenders from international firms to build necessary infrastructure for importing around 500 megawatts of electricity from neighbouring India, officials said Wednesday.
The state-owned Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) has invited the bids to build a 400-kilovolt (kV) transmission line from Baharampur of India to Bheramara in Bangladesh.
It has also invited bids from international firms for construction of a 500-mw high-voltage direct current (HVDC) back-to-back substation at Bheramara to facilitate electricity import from India and smooth distribution inside Bangladesh.
The PGCB move is the first step towards implementing the much-talked-about electricity import from neighbouring India and the power grid connectivity between the two countries.
Bangladesh is going to bring electricity from an overseas country for the first time in the country's history under an accord Dhaka signed with New Delhi during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tour to the Indian capital in January last.
When contacted, PGCB Managing Director Ruhul Amin said, when selected, the bidder would construct a double-circuit (DC) overhead transmission line from the Indian border to Bheramara in Bangladesh, a distance of around 40 kilometres.
"The bid winner will also build a line-in lineout 230 kV Ishurdi-Khulna DC overhead transmission line at Bheramara for smooth transmission of Indian electricity," he told the FE.
"The substation is going to be built to facilitate import of maximum 500 mw electricity from India at the initial level," said the PGCB top official.
The government would have to augment the substation capacity later, if required, to import more electricity, he added.
The intending bidders will have to submit their bids by April 15 next for construction of the electricity transmission line and by April 29 next for building the 500-mw capacity substation.
"Awarding of contracts to the bid winners would be completed by July 2010," said Mr Amin.
Investments worth Tk 11 billion will be required to establish the inter-country electricity grid connectivity.
The multilateral lending agencies -World Bank and Asian Development Bank - have pledged to fund the projects, said the PGCB managing director.
Installation of around 88 kilometres of electricity transmission lines would also be required inside India to implement the electricity import plan.
The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will make the purchase while the PGCB and the Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI) will jointly set up transmission lines to carry the power to the Bangladeshi grid.
The PGCB would get wheeling charges from the PDB for bringing the power from the Indian national grid.
The charge will be fixed based on the quantity of electricity to be traded and the distance to the users' end.
A six-member technical committee comprising top officials of the PGCB and the PGCI has already been constituted to determine how the power will be transmitted from the neighbouring Indian states.
Bangladesh requires additional electricity supplies as the country's electricity generation is now hovering around 3,700 mw against the peak hour demand for over 5,500 mw.
The country's electricity demand has been growing by 7.50 per cent annually since 1990.
Around 40 per cent of its population has access to electricity --- one of the lowest in the world, according to the power ministry statistics.
As of June 2009, Bangladesh's electricity consumer-base reached 11 million. The country has now 8,000 kilometres of electricity transmission lines, 256,000 kilometres of distribution lines.
Augmenting electricity generation is a key priority of the Awami League government. It has pledged to generate 5,000 mw of power by 2011, and 7,000 mw by 2013.