Reliance gets cabinet nod to set up power plant of 750MW

The cabinet committee yesterday gave the go-ahead to Reliance Power of India for setting up a 750-megawatt power plant at Meghnaghat in Narayanganj.

The power plant will run on imported liquefied natural gas and the government will purchase electricity from Reliance at $0.73 (Tk 5.85) per kilowatt/hour.

The Indian company has sought to set up the power plant after relocating some machinery from its plant in south India to Bangladesh.

Reliance had put forward a proposal to the government to set up a 3,000MW power plant in Bangladesh based on imported LNG, and in June 2015, the Bangladesh Power Development Board even signed a preliminary agreement with the Indian company in this regard.

The main equipment of the proposed 750MW plant would be relocated from India to Bangladesh but Reliance would have to submit performance certificates from equipment manufacturers, said a power division official.

Reliance has to build a floating terminal in Moheshkhali of Cox's Bazar to facilitate the import of LNG from the Middle East, according to the official. It will have to unload the LNG and convert it into natural gas in Moheshkhali.

The company would require a pipeline to supply the gas to Meghnaghat from Moheshkhali.

State-run Petrobangla will install a gas pipeline from Moheshkhali to Bakhrabad.  Gas Transmission Co Ltd (GTCL) will build another gas pipeline from Kutumbupur of Bakhrabad to Meghnaghat with its own fund to supply gas to the power plant.

Reliance will pay charges to GTCL for using the pipeline, the official told The Daily Star. He said the 750MW power plant might go into production after 2019.

The cabinet committee on purchase yesterday also approved three proposals under Rooppur nuclear power plant for the construction of one 16-storied and two 20-storied buildings at a cost of about Tk 510 crore. The buildings will provide housing facility to the employees of the power plants, said a cabinet division official.

The Rooppur nuclear power plant project involves Tk 113,092 crore and the largest ever in Bangladesh's history. Of the sum, Russia will provide Tk 91,040 crore for setting up two 2,400 megawatt nuclear-based power plants.