Power transmission from Payra, Rampal plants to wait for 7 to 8 months
The transmission of
electricity from newly built Payra and Rampal plants over Padma River to
Dhaka’s Aminbazar will delay by at least 7 to 8 months.
Work on construction of a
high voltage 400 kV double-circuit power transmission line to cross mighty
river through Padma Bridge is yet to be completed. Bangladesh Power Development
Board (BPDB) meanwhile counts a huge financial loss.
According to official
sources, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) had undertaken the 164.6
km long Aminbazar-Maowa-Mongla transmission line project in 2016 at a cost of
Tk 25.05 billion.
The most significant part
of the project was the Padma River Crossing which remains incomplete because of
the ongoing construction work of the Padma Bridge project.
As per a revised schedule,
the Aminbazar-Maowa-Mongla transmission line project was supposed to be
completed in December 2021. The failure to timely complete the project is also
causing a financial loss as well, said the officials.
PGCB officials noted that
the transmission line will need to install a total of 7 towers, each having 126
meter height, within the river area to cross the 9.4 km width area of Padma
River.
But so far only the
foundation of two towers have been completed by the Bangladesh Bridge Authority
(BBA) and their sites handed over to the PGCB”, said Golam Kibria, managing
director of the PGCB.
Now works are going on for
the foundation of the remaining five towers and we hope we will get the
remaining five sites by April this year and then the PGCB will require another
5-6 months to complete the installation works, he told UNB.
He also said the
transmission line will come into operation as soon as the river crossing
installation is completed.
The PGCB officials
attributed the delay to the BBA, the implementing agency of the Padma
Multipurpose Project, and said the delay in Padma Bridge project ultimately
delayed the river crossing works.
Official sources said that
the PGCB started the construction of the transmission line with its target to
complete it before commissioning of the Payra and Rampal plants, two large
establishments in south-western region.
But when it moved to start
the river crossing line at Padma River, the BBA requested to halt the work for
facilitating the bridge construction works as no other construction works were
allowed at the area.
The BBA also offered the
PGCB to do the foundation works for installation of 7 towers within the river
area. At the government’s top level mediation, the PGCB had to accept the
offer.
But suspension in river
crossing works caused the government a huge financial loss, a PGCB official
said.
He said that the
state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to pay a penalty of Tk
1.3 billion per month to the Payra power plant for failing to evacuate its
electricity because of the non-completion of the river crossing works of the
Aminbazar-Maowa-Mongla transmission line project.
He also informed that the
financial loss of the BPDB will increase and it can go down by more than double
if the 1320 MW Rampal power plant starts commercial production before
completion of the transmission project.
“Because, the BPDB had a
power purchase agreement with both the Payra and Rampal power plants to buy
electricity from the two large power plants in failing which it would have to
pay penalty,” said the official.