4,000MW power bid by next year
Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the government would invite tenders for generating 4,000-megawatt electricity by December 2010 for tackling the nagging power crisis in the country.
"In last one year we have taken preparation for setting up big power plants. Next year, tenders will be floated for setting up the plants."
Muhith told journalists after holding a meeting with the representatives of Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL) at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) yesterday.
Refuting the press reports that there has been no step taken for generating more electricity in last one year, the finance minister said, "Much time is needed to complete the process for setting up a big power plant.
"We have completed the preparation. We will be able to fulfil the target of power generation as envisaged in our election pledge."
Muhith said power crisis is one of the major causes of prevailing sluggish investment. The government is alert to take necessary steps to augment power generation.
Severely criticising the reports published in a section of the press questioning the honesty of the prime minister's energy adviser Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, the finance minister said, "The propaganda against the energy adviser is being unleashed to thwart the development initiatives of the present government."
Some political quarters were also involved in the propaganda against the energy adviser, Muhith alleged.
Earlier IDCOL, a fully government owned public limited company and a non-bank financial institution, paid Tk 6 crore to the government as dividend for the year 2008-09.
ERD Secretary and IDCOL Chairman Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and IDCOL Executive Director and CEO Ismail Sharif handed over the dividend cheque to the finance minister.
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