Power div seeks nod on Sylhet

Dhaka: The Power Division is likely to seek today the cabinet purchase committee approval for the single, costly bid of an Indian company for the installation of a 100MW unit of the proposed 150MW Sylhet power plant.

The division is scheduled to place before the committee, headed by the finance adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, a proposal for the award of a Tk 495 crore turnkey contract for the unit installation to the single bidder Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.
The division placed the proposal at the committee’s latest meeting, but the issue was not discussed as the power adviser was not present at the meeting.

The Indian company was the single bidder with an offer of about $83 million for the plant installation.

The contract price, however, was reduced to Tk 495 crore after negotiation between the Power Development Board and the Indian company, but the provision for the supply of a large number of spare parts was dropped off the contract. The power board will need to buy the spare parts in future.

Many power board officials feel the Tk 495 crore contract for the 100MW plant is costly as the purchase committee recently approved the award of a Tk 574 crore contract to a Chinese company for the installation of the 150MW plant at Shikalbaha.

The installation cost of each megawatt at the Sylhet plant will be Tk 4.95 crore whereas the installation cost of each megawatt at the Shikalbaha plant will be around Tk 3.82 crore.
Some other officials claimed the bid price was higher this time as the contract was re-tendered twice, and if the purchase committee asks for further re-tender, the bid price will increase further as about one year will be needed to complete the bidding process.

The Energy Division, on the other hand, will place before the committee the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation proposal for the import of around 12 lakh tonnes of petroleum products, including diesel, from the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation between January and June.

The corporation imports about 20 lakh tonnes of petroleum products from the Kuwait corporation every year under a state-to-state deal.