Home ›› 19 Aug 2021 ›› Front
Dhaka and Western Zone Transmission Grid Expansion project is hit hard by the ongoing Covid-19 induced shock which is not only taking tolls on human lives but also significantly suspending or slowing down all sort of development activities in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world.
Due to the ongoing worst pandemic, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh has long been facing a setback in resuming the groundworks for accomplishing its power transmission line strengthening project between the West zone of the country and the capital city Dhaka and its adjoining areas.
As a result, this project is facing significant delays with no sign of any substantial progress like other ongoing power transmission projects undertaken by PGCB.
PGCB had taken a project titled “Dhaka and Western Zone Transmission Grid Expansion” at the cost of Tk 5,952 crore to supply uninterrupted electricity for industrial, commercial and residential consumption in the DESCO areas of Dhaka city along with newly developed townships in Purbachal, Bashundhara and Uttara areas.
To some extent, the project will also gradually cover more areas such as Rampura, Gulshan, Banani, Kaliganj of Gazipur, Kaliakoir, Tongi, and Western, Northern and Southern Zones—Ghorashal, Rupsha, Monirampur, Meherpur, Satkhira, Bhola, Shibchar, Bhanga, Jhalokathi, Pirojpur, Kushtia, Khulna, Bagerhat, Faridpur, Madaripur, Barishal and Gopalganj.
According to PGCB officials, the project has slowed down by at least 50 per cent compared to the earlier pace of work before the pandemic.
“Because of coronavirus prompted lockdown and travel ban, interested bidders and experts have failed to travel to Bangladesh as in-person presentation of the bidders are very important in selecting contractors for the project,” said PGCB officials on condition of anonymity while talking to The Business Post.
In reply to a question, executive engineer of the project Md Jahid Hasan told The Business Post, “If the pandemic did not constrain us, we would be able to complete at least 50 per cent of works in all the 12 packages including tender process, selection of contractors and land acquisition.”
Though it started in October 2019, this project has achieved only 7.80 per cent physical progress while 0.07 per cent financial progress as PGCB could only complete the tender process of one package, which is packages number three, out of the total 12 packages.
The completion of this project by June 2024 is uncertain as some important works like land acquisition, selecting contactors of the rest of the 11 packages are yet to be done, said PGCB officials.
PGCB will install some 35 new substations and lay 408km long different kilowatt voltage range new transmission lines in the designated areas to replace the existing outdated electricity line, according to the project profile.
Of the 408km new transmission lines, 22km will be 400-kilowatt voltage, 144km will be 230-kilowatt voltage and 242km will be 132-kilowatt voltage connected with 1,156 towers.
Once the project is successfully completed, it will help reduce network energy loss and system loss from the existing 9.89 per cent to 2.76 per cent and power loss saving will be 840 GWh (Gigawatt hours) from the existing 2036 GWh.
The annual power outages will also come down to 15 times from 60 times and add 7,440 Megavolt amperes (MVA) power transmission capacity, said officials.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) data shows that the annual average CO2 emission reduction would be 455,785 tonnes once the project is successfully implemented.
ADB is providing 71 per cent of the total project cost while PGCB and the government are paying the remaining five per cent and 24 per cent, respectively.
Talking to The Business Post, project director Md Sharfuddin Hossain said, “Our project execution largely depends on the foreign firms and experts. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, the interested bidders and experts couldn’t fly to Bangladesh in time due to the suspension of air operations coupled with the enforced lockdowns, which prevented us from selecting contractors and commencing groundworks.”
“Reliable and safer transfer of power are very important as the government plans to build new cities in areas adjacent to Bashundhara residential area known as Purbachal, Uttara and Gazipur. High rise buildings will be constructed and new industries will be set up to meet the growing demand of residential as well as industrial facilities,” added Md Sharfuddin Hossain.
As of today, we can only award the package-3 work while the main work of this package was scheduled to be commenced in July this year, said the project director.
Under package-3, there will be new transmission lines in Satkhira-Rupsha, Rupsha power plant-Khulna, Satkhira-Monirampur, Khaliganj-Maheshpur, Kushtia-Meherpur and Goalpara-Bagerhat areas.
PGCB signed a contract with Indian company Larsen & Toubro Construction on May 27 this year to lay 62.5km long 230Kv transmission lines and 114km long 132kv transmission lines with the estimated cost of Tk 500 crore.
The main work of this package, which is laying transmission lines, would be completed within three years of the date of signing the contract as per the agreement.
