ECNEC okays 450-mw power plant at Ashuganj

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FE ReportThe government's highest economic policy-making body ECNEC Tuesday approved construction of a 450-megawatt power plant at Ashuganj, investing Tk 34 billion, to ease the country's ongoing electricity crisis, officials said. Presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) also approved five other projects at the total cost of Tk 5.04 billion. The state-owned Ashuganj Power Station Company Ltd (APSCL) will set up the gas-based 450-mw plant, one of the country's largest electricity generators, within 2013-14 fiscal. A Power Division official said the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will provide 88 per cent of the total Tk 34 billion project cost. He said the power plant will replace an existing older and inefficient 274-mw plant at Ashuganj. Electricity from the proposed station will be supplied to the country's north-east region. Besides the mega project, the ECNEC also endorsed another project, costing Tk 1.63 billion, targeting employment generation through duck rearing. Under the project, regional duck reproductive farms and hatcheries would be constructed in 13 districts to produce more than 3.1 million ducklings every year. Other four projects approved in the meeting are - Tk 1.15 billion cost integrated development of fisheries and livestock project (4th phase), Tk 400 million cost institutional development and strengthening of Bangladesh Marine Fisheries Academy project, Tk 1.44 billion cost construction of Khulna district jail project, and Tk 420 million cost construction of the BGB's 85 outposts in frontier areas projects. ECNEC members, including Finance Minister A M A Muhith, Planning Minister A K Khandker, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury and Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen, advisers to the Prime Minister, members of the Planning Commission, and secretaries of the ministries were present at the meeting.