Cabinet okays plan to set up first waste-based power plant

The government yesterday gave its nod to a proposal to set up the country's first ever waste-based power plant.

The state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board now has permission to establish the plant in Jalkuri under Narayanganj district.

At a meeting chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, the cabinet committee on purchase permitted BPDB to sign an agreement with a consortium of the UD Environmental Equipment Technology Co., Everbright Environmental Protection Technology Equipment (Changzhou) and SABS Syndicate for the plant.

The deal would be signed for 20 years.  

Once completed, this would be the country's first power plant fired by waste. The capacity of the plant is six megawatts.

BPDB would pay Tk 1,665.48 crore to the consortium to buy electricity from the plant during the period. Per kilowatt-hour electricity would cost Tk 17.60.

Yesterday, the committee approved a total of six proposals involving Tk 2,568 crore.

It gave its consent to a proposal to buy 1,02,720 SPC (spun pre-stressed concrete) poles for Tk 164.87 crore. The Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board would buy the equipment from Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory Ltd in the form of imports.  

State-run Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) would buy 30,000 tonnes of bagged granular urea fertilizer for Tk 66.92 crore from Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company.

BCIC also got permission to purchase 30,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid from its subsidiary, DAP Fertilizer Company Ltd, in the form of imports for Tk 87.59 crore. 

Meanwhile, the committee allowed the food department to buy 2 lakh tonnes wheat for Tk 437.56 crore from Moscow-based Prodintorg.

Per tonne of wheat would cost $258, said Nasima Begum, an additional secretary of the cabinet division.

The government has a plan to import 5 lakh tonnes of wheat in the current fiscal year.

The committee awarded one of the public work portions of a project that is converting the Kurigram (Dasherhat)-Nageshwari-Bhurungamari-Sonahat Landport Road into a national highway to a joint venture of Spectra Engineers Ltd Rana Builders (Pvt) Ltd. The portion would be built at a cost of Tk 145.63 crore.

The cabinet committee on economic affairs approved a proposal from the energy and mineral resources ministry to buy 49.80 lakh tonnes of petroleum products in 2021.

The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation would buy 39.60 lakh tonnes of gas oil, 4.8 lakh tonnes of Jet A-1 (an aviation fuel), 1.8 lakh tonnes of mogas (light aircraft fuel), 0.80 lakh tonnes of furnace oil and 2.8 lakh tonnes of marine fuel.