PM to inaugurate 1,320MW Payra power plant tomorrow
The Payra area in Patuakhali is going to be a major economic hub with a sea port, a special economic zone, an airport and the country's biggest coal-fired power plant that will officially launch operation tomorrow.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the 1,320 megawatts plant.
According to government documents, thousands of jobs will be created as the physical work of the mega projects progresses. Eventually, the economic zone will raise the country's GDP by 2 percent.
The authorities expect to supply about 80-85 percent of the plant's electricity to the southern part of the country.
Officials said the plant will be operated at full steam only once the 440kV transmission line is established through the Padma river, which may take a year.
The two-unit plant, each having a 660MW capacity, is already connected to the national grid in Gopalganj. Officials use both of the units by rotation, producing 320-640MW of electricity.
The plant's first unit was connected to the national grid on May 15, 2020, while the second one started production on December 8 last year.
Rezwan Iqbal Khan, executive engineer at the power plant, said some 163km of transmission line connect the plant to a Gopalganj grid. Another 85km of lines are being constructed from Gopalganj to Dhaka's Amin Bazar.
Only two out of seven towers of the Dhaka-Payra power transmission line have been constructed on the Padma, said Golam Kibria, managing director at Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.
Construction of the five other towers will be done by June while the cables will be set up by December, he added.
Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL) built the power plant on 982.77 acres of land at a cost of around Tk 20,000 crore or $2.46 billion. Of the amount, $1.96 billion was lent by the Export-Import Bank of China. The company started working in 2016.
The power plant is burning some 13,000 tonnes of coal a day, generating 180 tonnes of fly and bottom ash as byproducts.
BCPCL Assistant Manager Shahmoni Ziko said the plant has a 76.30 acre dumping zone where 25 years worth of byproduct can be kept.
The plant is currently importing coal from Indonesia. It has its own jetty whose conveyor belts can unload 3,200 tonnes of coal every hour from four vessels at the same time.
Bangladesh's power generation capacity reached 25,514 MW from just 4,942MW in 2009, according to data.
In 2013, the government planned to build a coal terminal, airport, special economic zone, rail connectivity, shipyard, liquid bulk terminal, and LNG terminal in Payra-Dhankhali area of Kalapara, Patuakhali.
The government is implementing four projects related to the port at a cost of Tk 15,863 crore. Physical establishments of the port made 80 percent progress.
According to the planning ministry data, the port started operation on a limited scale in August, 2016.
Construction of the main infrastructure of the port, a four-lane road, dredging on the internal naval routes, warehouse, six ships, housing, and health facilities for the officials is almost done.
According to the plan, the government will produce 12,000MW of electricity in Payra, including another 1,320MW coal-fired plant and several other plants that will run on LNG and renewables.
[Sohrab Hossain contributed to the report]