50 mw waste-based power plant to be built soon

The government is set to award Italian firm - Management Environment Finance srl - a contract to build the country's first waste-based power plant to generate around 50 megawatts (mw) of electricity, a power ministry official said. The Italian firm will use huge quantity of kitchen wastes, to be produced from Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) area, to generate electricity from the power plant, he said. It will build the power plant on build-own-and-operate (BOO) basis within 36 months of signing the deal. State-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will purchase electricity at Tk 8.75 per unit for 20 years from the proposed plant to be located near the capital. The project cost will be around Tk 68.82 billion. Officials said the cabinet committee on government purchase may stamp its seal of approval to the construction of the power plant today (Sunday). Local Government Division of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) and Cooperatives has initiated the move to build the country's first power plant of its kind. It has selected the Italian firm as the potential sponsor to build the power plant from among six local and foreign interested bidders in a competitive bidding. Currently around 5,000 tonnes of kitchen wastes are produced a day in the capital, which, the officials said, are enough to run the 50-mw capacity waste-based power plant. -FE Report