Home ›› 11 Aug 2021 ›› Front
The construction of a 164.6-kilometre power transmission line from Dhaka’s Aminbazar to Mongla through the river Padma is set back due to procrastination over tower installation work.
There will be seven river-crossing towers built in Padma to transmit power, the work of which is yet to kick off.
A 400-KV power line will carry 4,000-megawatt electricity to the national grid from Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Payra Coal Power Plant and Rampal Coal Power Plant.
The project worth Tk 2,505 crore was scheduled to be completed by December this year with the finance from the Asian Development Bank, the Power Grid Company and the Government of Bangladesh.
It won’t be completed as per the schedule as the Padma Bridge Authority is yet to install the seven important river-crossing towers which will be connected with the power line.
An evaluation report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Planning Ministry revealed the picture.
According to the report, the Padma Bridge Authority has not informed the project implementing agency, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, about the progress of the major river-crossing towers’ construction work.
That’s why the PGCB will need further time to do the job, reads the report.
The duration of the project had earlier been extended by six months to December 2021.
In reply to a question, IMED Secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakravorty told The Business Post they have prepared and finalised the report after evaluating all the aspects of the project. Now, the evaluation report will be sent to the ministries concerned for taking necessary steps in this regard. The main objective of the project is to create facilities to evacuate power to the national grid by establishing a 400 KV transmission backbone line between Dhaka and Khulna area.
Instead of setting up separate lines to transmit power from coal-fired power plants in Payra and Khulna and nuclear power plant in Rooppur, a provision has been made to construct high-capacity power lines to supply electricity through the substation in Gopalganj.
Till June the physical progress of the project was 92.85 per cent while its financial progress 70.26 per cent.
According to Project Director Morshed Alam Khan, the Padma Bridge Authority is yet to inform the PGCB about the progress of the construction of seven river-crossing towers in Padma River.
PGCB will need to use 209 towers of higher elevation on the route to help the transmission line go over the approach road of the Padma Bridge, railways and flyovers.
Because of further delay, the cost of the project is also set to rise. The route of the Aminbazar-Maowa-Mongla 400-KV line has been changed. Now, power would be transmitted from Mongla to Aminbazar via Gopalganj sub-station, according to officials related to the project.
Power would be dispatched from Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Pabna and coal-based power plants in Khulna and Payra in Patuakhali to Dhaka and neighbouring areas through a sub-station in Gopalganj.
Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project Director Shafiqul Islam told The Business Post, “As the completion of the Padma Bridge Project is delayed by a series of factors including the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the river training, the other services linked with the project would also take time.”
“The construction of seven river-crossing towers for 400KV transmission line is directly linked with the Padma Bridge project. Therefore, the construction of these towers will get delayed.”
Not only the Aminbazar-Mawa-Mongla 400KV Transmission Line project but the other projects including telephone line, electricity and pipeline to supply gas would fall behind schedule.
“However, we are aware about it and necessary steps would be taken to expedite the construction work in progress,” said the project director.
Payra Power Plant
The first unit was synchronised with Bangladesh’s national grid while a test production kicked off in January 2020. The second unit followed suit in November 2020. The electricity generated by the power plant is fed to the national grid via the double-circuit 400-KV transmission lines connected with the 400-KV Patuakhali grid substation of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB).
The 1320-megawatt coal-fired power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat, near the Sundarbans, is expected to be completed by December this year. The project was supposed to be wrapped up by December last year, but the authority extended the deadline by a year.
The Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited under the Power Division is tasked with the construction of Tk 160 billion-plant.
Rooppur Neuclear Power Plant
The government is constructing its first nuclear power plant in Rooppur on the east side of the river Padma near Ishwardi in Pabna.
Rooppur Unit-1 is scheduled to commence operation in 2023 while Rooppur Unit-2 is due to come online in 2024.
