Food ministry to purchase 10m sacks from BJMC

The food ministry will procure 10 million hessian sacks from the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) to package paddy and rice.

The procurement will cost the exchequer Tk 540 million.

The cabinet committee on public procurement approved the purchase proposal at a meeting on Wednesday, with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, the minister said about 44,000 people are now employed in the BJMC-run jute mills.

They are being paid and will be able to produce the jute bags required for the packaging, he said while replying to a query.

The meeting also approved the procurement of electricity from the solar power plant to be built in Pabna district.

A joint venture of Mostafa Motors Ltd. and Solarland (Wuxi) Electric Science and Technology Co. Ltd. will set up the plant with an electricity generation capacity of 3.77 megawatt.

The government will purchase electricity at Tk 8.59 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for a period of 20 years on 'no electricity, no payment' basis.

"If the company fails to provide electricity or we fail to consume, we won't have to pay," said the minister.

No capacity payment will be applicable to this case, he added.

The plant would be able to supply electricity worth Tk 1.05 billion in 20 years, if it can produce power uninterruptedly, the minister said.

The committee also approved a proposal of Roads and Highways Division relating to the construction of Sonahat bridge in Kurigram district.

syful-islam@outlook.com