Japan to provide $1,500m more for Matarbari power plant

Japan will provide $1,500 million more in the 7th tranche under the 44th Japanese Loan Package (2nd batch) for the Matarbari Ultra Super Critical Coal-Fired Power Project.

Sharifa Khan, secretary at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the Ministry of Finance signed the “Exchange of Notes” and “Loan Agreement” on behalf of Bangladesh while Iwama Kiminori, ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh signed the “Exchange of Notes” and Ichiguchi Tomohide, chief representative of JICA Bangladesh Office has signed the Loan Agreement on behalf of Japan government, read a press release on Saturday.

The signing ceremony was held at the NEC-2 conference room of ERD at Sher-E-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.

The rate of interest of this loan will be 1.60 per cent for construction, 0.10 per cent for consultancy services, a front-end fee (at a time) of 0.2 per cent, and a repayment period of 30 years which includes 10 10-year grace period.

This project is being implemented to meet growing electricity demand and to improve stable power supply by installing 1200 MW (600MWx2 units) Ultra Super Critical Coal-fired Power Plant at Matarbari Area of Maheshkhali Upazila under Cox’s Bazar district.

The total cost of the project is 51,854.88 crore (GOB 6,406.16 cr., JICA 43,921.03 cr., CPGCBL 1,527.69 cr.) taka.

The project implementation period is from July 2014 to December 2026. Up to August 2023, the physical progress of the project is 78.30 per cent and financial progress is 65.14 per cent.

JICA is providing assistance for this project in different phases. JICA has already provided 437,754 million JPY in 6 tranches. Under this 7th tranche of ODA Loan for this project, JICA will provide 217,556 million JPY.

Japan is the single largest bilateral development partner of Bangladesh. They have been providing continuous support for the socio-economic development of Bangladesh since our independence.

The ODA commitment has exceeded $30.34 billion till now. Japanese loans and grants are being utilized in a wide range of areas including power, roads, bridges, telecommunication, agriculture, health, education, water supply and sanitation, rural development, environment, human resource development etc.

The Japanese assistance contributed significantly to the overall development of the country.