Bashundhara to supply 8m tonnes of coal to Rampal plant

Bashundhara Group has won the bid to supply 8 million tonnes of coal to the Rampal coal-fired power plant.

According to official sources, three companies submitted bids to supply the coal.

“Bashundhara came out as the lowest bidder offering $232.33 per MT of coal under the index of ICI-2 to reach the product up to the jetty of the power plant”, a top official of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt.) Ltd., (BIFPCL), told UNB.

The BIFPCL invited the tender a few months back and three companies—local Bashundhara, Akij and Dubai-based Commodity First--submitted their respective bids to win the coal supply contract.

The bids were opened on Monday and Bashundhara became the first lowest offering the coal price at $232.33 per MT while Commodity First became the second lowest with its offer to supply coal at $234 per MT while Akij Group offered the coal price at $282 per MT.

Earlier, Bashundhara Group had won the first bid as well to supply a limited 300,000 MT of coal for the 1320 MW Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant (2X660 MW) at Rampal of Southern Bagerhat district. At that time, its joint venture consisted of two subsidiaries—Bashundhara Food and Beverage Industries Ltd. (BFBIL) and Bashundhara Multi Trading Limited (BMTL)—participated in the international tender of the BIFPCL and won the tender.

The Maitree super thermal power project, known as Rampal power plant, was constructed by the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (BIFPCL), a 50:50 joint venture between the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)., started test operation on December 23 last year.

The BPDB represents the Bangladesh government in the joint venture while NTPC represents the Indian central government.

Dhaka and Delhi made a decision to build the plant under joint venture in 2010 and it took about 13 years to set up the plant.