The Power Division has sought Tk 153 billion, its highest ever requirement, from the government in the upcoming national budget for carrying out its development work, officials said Friday.
The amount is 72 per cent higher than that in the current budget, they added.
Planning Commission (PC) officials said the Power Division sought the fund of Tk 153 billion (15,300 crore) under the next fiscal's Annual Development Programme (ADP) for different power generation, transmission and distribution projects.
In the current financial year (FY) 2014-15, the government has allocated Tk 83.24 billion for the Power Division for completing its ongoing projects under the revised ADP.
In the previous FY 2014, the Division got Tk 85.73 billion under the fiscal's revised ADP.
"We need hefty funds in the ADP for the next FY 2016. We have undertaken some big power generation and transmission projects that require a sizeable amount of money," a Power Division official said.
In the next ADP the Power Division will have a total of 70 development projects including some big ones.
The Power Division has already proposed some big projects including setting up a 1200-megawatt (MW) coal-based power plant at Matarbari, installing two power plants having 365MW and 410MW capacities at Ghorasal, developing a 1320MW Rampal power plant site, setting up 1320 MW power plant at Pyra, installing a Tripura-Comilla cross-border transmission line and building a 275MW coal-based power plant at Barapukuria.
The Power Division official said they sought a higher amount of funds from the external resources in the form of project aid in the next development budget and a less amount of funds from the internal resources to implement their electricity supply improvement projects.
Out of the Tk 153 billion sought under the next ADP, "we have requested the Planning Commission to allocate Tk 90.40 billion from the external resources as project aid (PA) and Tk 61.84 billion from the state exchequer.
In the current fiscal's revised ADP, the government has allocated Tk 35.93 billion from the external resources in the form of project aid and Tk 47.30 billion from the internal resources.
The Power Division official said they would require Tk 5.24 billion for the proposed 1320MW power plant at Pyra, Tk 7.40 billion for the Barapukuria 275MW power plant, Tk 2.34 billion for the Matarbari power plant, Tk 5.70 billion for the Ghorashal 365MW power plant, Tk 5.08 billion for the 410 MW Ghorashal power plant, Tk 500 million for the Tripura-Comilla transmission line installation under the next ADP.
"Since the government has laid emphasis on power supply improvement, the Power Division is working on it. So, we will require a higher amount of funds for the development projects in the next fiscal," he told the FE.
Power supply is the top priority sector of the government as the country is struggling to overcome a big electricity supply shortfall with the demand growing every year.
According to the Power Sector Master Plan 2010, if Bangladesh wants to attain 8.0 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth, the demand for electricity will rise to 34,000 MW by 2030.
Currently the total installed power generation capacity in the country is 11,000MW daily. The actual power generation was 6,800mw as of Thursday last against the peak-time demand for about 8,000mw.
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