Only 14% progress in 4.5 years

The solar pump irrigation project has seen very little progress over the last four and a half years.

Installation of 2,000 solar pumps has progressed only 14 percent while it is only 3.75 percent in case of solar panel installation, says a report of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the Planning Commission.

However, IMED report found that the project had been delayed due to lack of customers of solar-run pumps for irrigation.

The implementation of the project is slow as customers cannot afford to buy a pump under this scheme. A customer has to pay 35 percent and the remaining 65 percent is paid by the government.

A customer has to pay 10 percent of his amount as down payment. The rest of the money he has to pay in 10 years. Many customers do not want to take the risk of paying without seeing the pump.

The cost of solar pump is Tk10 lakh and of the money a customer has to pay Tk3.40 lakh and the rest of the money will be provided by the government.

The government took the project ‘Solar Power-Run Pumps for Irrigation’ at a cost of Tk407 crore which was approved by the ECNEC in May 2018.

The project is scheduled to be completed by December 2020. In the first amendment, the implementation period of the project was rescheduled to be completed by December 2022.

Now Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) has sought one year extension for completing the project.

After the first revision, the project cost was trimmed down to Tk393 crore. The tenure of the project was three years.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) promised to give Tk324 crore but in this time frame the lender disbursed only 6.6 percent of its disbursement which is Tk22 crore.

As per the latest available data, only 13.95 percent of the total estimated expenditure has been spent till March 2022. The physical progression rate is 30 percent, which is remarkably low.

So far, the applications of 512 farmers have been finalized, which is 25.6 percent of the target.

Project Director of the Sakil Ibne Sayed said the implementation of the project had been delayed due to various reasons.

“We did not get customers on time. Customers have to pay without seeing solar panel and pump. Other projects do not involve customer’s payments. But this project has client payments. Due to this, it is difficult to get customers,” he added.

These pumps will be installed in the districts of Noagaon, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Gopalganj, Faridpur, Madaripur, Cumilla, and Feni under different rural electricity cooperatives known as Palli Bidyut Samity (PBS).