A Bangladesh-Singapore joint venture yesterday signed a number of agreements with different parties to set up a 414-megawatt power plant in Sirajganj at a cost of $412 million.

Sembcorp North-West Power Company Ltd, the joint venture of Sembcorp Utilities of Singapore and Bangladesh's state-run North-West Power Generation Company Ltd, will build the duel fuel power plant.

This will be the first public-private partnership project with a foreign investor in the power sector in Bangladesh. The joint venture signed four agreements at a programme at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka. The agreements were on power purchase, land lease, gas supply, fuel supply and implementation.

The simple cycle power plant is expected to start commercial production in June 2018 and the combined cycle in December the same year. It will supply power for 22.5 years.

The tariff would be Tk 3.19 per kilowatt-hour if the plant is run by gas and Tk 13.56 if it is run by diesel.

Sembcorp will own a 71 percent stake in the project while North-West Power Generation will hold the rest.

The International Finance Corporation, Commonwealth Development Corporation of UK and Clifford Capital, a finance company based in Singapore, will lend 75 percent of the project cost, with a 25 percent share each.

With the project, Singapore made its foray into Bangladesh's energy sector.

Darryl Lau, consul general of the Singapore embassy in Bangladesh, said although it is a late entry into Bangladesh's energy sector, his country would try to make up for lost time.

Singaporean companies are keen on helping Bangladesh reach its electricity generation targets, he added.

The engineering, procurement and construction contractors for the project are SEPCO III, a Chinese electric power construction company, SDCI, a subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries, and SEMBPEC, a newly established entity of Sembcorp Utilities Pte Ltd. The contract price for this stands at $278.92 million.

The plant efficiency is expected to be 57 percent, said AM Khurshedul Alam, managing director of North-West Power Generation Company.

Nasrul Hamid, state minister for power, and Monowar Islam, power secretary, also spoke.