Cabinet to decide on 100MW Sylhet plant

Dhaka: The power and energy ministry will seek the government’s purchase committee’s approval for awarding a Tk 495 crore contract to a single bidder, an Indian company, for setting up the 100 megawatt unit of the proposed 150 MW Sylhet power plant.
The ministry today will also seek the committee’s approval to import 60,000 tonnes of diesel from an Egyptian company.
The Power Division will place a proposal before the committee, headed by finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, for awarding the turnkey contract for installation of the Sylhet plant to the Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd.
The Indian company was the single bidder with an offer of around $83 million for setting up the plant.
The contract price, however, was reduced to Tk 495 crore after negotiation between the Power Development Board and the Indian company, but the supply of a large number of spare parts was excluded from the contract. The PDB will have to buy the parts in future.
Many PDB officials feel that the Tk 495 crore contract for a 100 MW plant is costly as the purchase committee recently approved the awarding of a Tk 574 crore contract to a Chinese company for setting up the 150 MW plant at Shikalbaha.
The installation cost of each MW of the Sylhet plant will be Tk 4.95 crore whereas the installation cost of each MW of the Shikalbaha plant will be around Tk 3.82 crore.
Some other officials, however, claimed that the bid price was higher this time because the contract was re-tendered twice, and if the purchase committee asks for further re-tender the bid price will be higher as around one year will be needed to complete the bidding process.
The energy division will place before the committee the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s proposal to import 60,000 tonnes of diesel from the Middle East Oil Refinery of Egypt on a state-to-state basis.
The MIDOR has proposed that it will charge a premium (carrying and other charges like insurance) of $5.30 per barrel of diesel in addition to the price, which will be fixed in accordance with diesel price in the Middle East market.
The Egyptian company initially made an unsolicited proposal to supply around 2,00,000 tonnes of diesel, said sources in the BPC.
The BPC agreed to import two shiploads of diesel, which is around 60,000 tonnes, at a premium of $5.38 per barrel, which was later lowered to $5.30.