Revised bid for Sylhet power plant returns to purchase body this week

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S M Jahangir
The Power Division will again submit the revised bid for installation of the Tk 4.95-billion Sylhet 100-megawatt (MW) power plant to the government's purchase committee this week for approval.
The purchase committee last month returned the project proposal and asked the authorities to place it again after scrutiny.
"We have already fine tuned the proposal in line with the observations made by the purchase committee. Hopefully, the revised bid will be placed before the committee this week," a senior Power Division official said.
The official also expressed the hope that the project proposal would get approval of the government's highest purchase body shortly, which will help ease the country's power crisis to some extent in the medium term.
The selected bidder, according to the proposal, will require to complete the installation process of the proposed power plant within 15 months of securing the contract.
Official sources said, the government of Bangladesh will finance the proposed power project from its own resources to be implemented by the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
An Indian company -- the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) -- is the lone bidder for setting up of the gas-fired power unit, they said, adding that the company offered Tk 4.95 billion (US$68 million) for setting up the 100MW unit in Sylhet.
"Although seven bid documents were sold but only the BHEL took part in the bidding process," an official said, adding that there was no other option than accepting that offer.
According to officials, although the proposed bid was first placed before the purchase committee on December 27, 2007, no discussion took place on it.
An official, however, said an 'unprecedented' delay in the project approval process has already pushed the overall implementation costs for the Sylhet power plant.
Because of the delay, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) had to revise upward to Tk 4.07 billion from initial amount of Tk 3.42 billion in 2001, sources said.
According to them, the BPDB invited tender in 2002 for installing the plant where the Indian company BHEL submitted proposals offering 50 per cent buyers' credit. But the government did not approve the proposal due to hard-term loan and asked to float tender again.
In February 2006, the BPDB invited tender for the second time where no bidders were participated, they said, adding that the BHEL submitted its offer in the third tender that the Board invited in May last year.