Matarbari power plant to launch trial run tomorrow

The first unit of the coal-fired Matarbari Power Plant in Maheshkhali of Cox's Bazar district is to go on trial run on tomorrow( Saturday) with its 600 MW generation capacity, report agencies.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to commission the unit in December this year launching its regular production.
"The first of the two units (of Matarbari Power Plant) starts its trial run on July 29," project director Abul Kalam Azad said.
He added that the combined generation capacity of the plant was 1200 MW.The entire plant was set to go on full scale operation in March or April next year, instead of July 2024 as planned earlier.
A ship carrying 64,300 tonnes of coal for the Matarbari plant had arrived from Indonesia on June 23.
The 1200 MW power plant has been built on 1,414 acres of land in Matarbari and Dhalghata unions of Maheshkhali upazila of Cox's Bazar district.
Along with the construction of this power plant with Japanese funding on the coast of Cox's Bazar seven years ago, work has also started on the construction of port infrastructure and jetty for coal offloading from ships.
While visiting the area recently, it was seen that the project implementing company, Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (CPGCL), is going ahead with the work of this mega project.
The work of the jetty for the coal discharge with the power plant is almost finished. Vessels have also started sailing at the jetty.
The project has changed the entire landscape of the area, said officials.
Some 13,104 tonnes of coal will be required daily to generate electricity at full scale. Coal discharge jetties and silos have been constructed for this.
Coal required for 60 days has been kept in the huge silos. Up to 80,000 ton capacity mother vessels can directly enter the coal jetty. And it will take one and a half to two days to unload the coal from the mother vessel.
A loan agreement on the project was signed between the Government of Bangladesh and JICA on June 16, 2014. The project cost has been estimated at Tk 518.00 billion.
Of this, Tk 439.21 billion will be given as project support by JICA and the remaining Tk 79.33 billion will be provided from the own funds of Bangladesh Government and CPGCBL.