Completing the new public sector power plants in time
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
The caretaker government (CG) after it assumed power slapped restrictions on the use of power after evening in the shopping centres. The city streets, too, remain dimly lighted as part of the move to control use of power to meet the shortage in the national power grid. Small wonder the general public is used to many inconveniences in their day-to-day life and power is just one of them. But the problem is that the workplaces, the different factories and the farms where power is an essential input for their functioning cannot adjust to less than what is necessary, for less power for them means less production, reduced income and fewer jobs. And each of these negative outcomes reinforces one another thereby depriving the nation of its growth and the hope of any prosperity in the future. So, the job of managing the deficit in the national power grid, we have been doing rather skilfully thus far. But just managing cannot be a permanent solution to a problem.
The demand for power has been increasing by leaps and bounds every year, but little could so far be done to add new power generation units in the country. There is no use blaming the past governments for that, for that would not help to add a single watt to the national grid. The incumbent caretaker government, too, in the beginning hoped to solve the crisis by importing electricity from the neighbouring countries and by various other means. But the nature of the problem proved to be deeper and harder than it appeared on the face of it.
Meanwhile, the tenure of the caretaker government, too, is at its fag end. The task of establishing new power generation units will now devolve on the next elected government. But then, as of at the moment, what is the overall scenario so far as setting up of new power projects are concerned? At present, there are eight new power projects in the pipeline among which are those funded by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japanese government. There are also Bangladesh government-funded projects among them. These eight power projects scheduled to go into production by 2012 would add around 1300 megawatt of fresh power to the national grid.
But then what is the progress of work so far in those power projects? It has been reported in the media that the fund allocated for the power projects in question does not match with what is necessary. On this score, the outlooks of the power division and that of the planning commission about the status of funding of the power projects do not match. According to the planning commission, the funds allocated for the implementation of the projects in fiscal year (FY) 2008-09 at Tk 14 billion will not be adequate to complete the job in the stipulated time. And even if the power division used half of the total proposed fund of Tk38 billion this fiscal, it would require another Tk 21 billion for the next fiscal and in that case the total expenditure would overshoot the allocation by around Tk 2.0 billion-a situation that might affect the progress of work.
However, the secretary of the power division dismissed any such fear of fund shortage during the implementation of the projects with the assurance that fund constraints, if any, would be met either by diverting from other development projects or through getting fresh fund from the government. One would like to believe the assurance given by the power division, the owner of the public sector power projects in question. All concerned would hope that the nation would start getting fresh supply of power from the new generation projects by 2012.
The demand for power has been increasing by leaps and bounds every year, but little could so far be done to add new power generation units in the country. There is no use blaming the past governments for that, for that would not help to add a single watt to the national grid. The incumbent caretaker government, too, in the beginning hoped to solve the crisis by importing electricity from the neighbouring countries and by various other means. But the nature of the problem proved to be deeper and harder than it appeared on the face of it.
Meanwhile, the tenure of the caretaker government, too, is at its fag end. The task of establishing new power generation units will now devolve on the next elected government. But then, as of at the moment, what is the overall scenario so far as setting up of new power projects are concerned? At present, there are eight new power projects in the pipeline among which are those funded by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japanese government. There are also Bangladesh government-funded projects among them. These eight power projects scheduled to go into production by 2012 would add around 1300 megawatt of fresh power to the national grid.
But then what is the progress of work so far in those power projects? It has been reported in the media that the fund allocated for the power projects in question does not match with what is necessary. On this score, the outlooks of the power division and that of the planning commission about the status of funding of the power projects do not match. According to the planning commission, the funds allocated for the implementation of the projects in fiscal year (FY) 2008-09 at Tk 14 billion will not be adequate to complete the job in the stipulated time. And even if the power division used half of the total proposed fund of Tk38 billion this fiscal, it would require another Tk 21 billion for the next fiscal and in that case the total expenditure would overshoot the allocation by around Tk 2.0 billion-a situation that might affect the progress of work.
However, the secretary of the power division dismissed any such fear of fund shortage during the implementation of the projects with the assurance that fund constraints, if any, would be met either by diverting from other development projects or through getting fresh fund from the government. One would like to believe the assurance given by the power division, the owner of the public sector power projects in question. All concerned would hope that the nation would start getting fresh supply of power from the new generation projects by 2012.