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The Power Grid Network Strengthening Project has made a mere 18.9 per cent progress over the past five years and the officials claimed they would complete the remaining 81.1 per cent work in next three years.
The project, that began in 2016 and scheduled to be completed in June 2024, made only 12.06 per cent financial progress so far.
Taken to overhaul the outdated transmission lines and substations to ensure reliable power supply across Bangladesh, the project is planned to be implemented in eight divisions of the country.
Officials involved with the project hope that once the project is successfully implemented, it will bring significant changes in transmitting uninterrupted power and help grow the economic activities of those regions.
“Initially, this project saw a significant delay in securing funding. The project is going as per the plan since the financier for it was confirmed in 2019,” said Md Shafiullah, project director and chief engineer of Power Grid Network Strengthening Project.
“Preparing tender documents, selecting contractors and acquiring land is a time-consuming process which takes a bulk amount of time,” he said when asked why the project registered so little physical progress over the span of five years.
The $1.4-billion-project where China is paying $970 million and the rest of the amount would be funded by Bangladesh, will construct 989.7 kilometres of new transmission lines and install around 40 new substations.
Out of the total stretch, 100 kilometres will transmit 400-kilowatt voltage of power, 330.20 kilometres will transmit 230-kilowatt voltage, 334.50 kilometres will transmit 132-kilowatt voltage and 225-kilometre line will be replaced by 132-kilowatt voltage conductor upgradation line.
Shafiullah said that this project was taken in line with the government’s decisions of setting up industrial parks and economic zones across the country which requires reliable feeding of power to run heavy industries.
“Most of the transmission and distribution lines in the country are outdated which cause power blackout during storms and inclement weather. Bangladesh is making impressive
economic growth, and an uninterrupted electricity supply is vital in continuing the journey. This project will bring a revolutionary change in power transmission in different parts of the country” he said.
Despite achieving the capacity of producing 21,000 megawatts of electricity, many parts of Bangladesh are still out of electricity coverage and many others suffer load shedding because of weak transmission and distribution lines.
To meet the growing demand for electricity, Bangladesh plans to increase the power generation capacity to 24,000MW by 2021 and 40,000MW by 2030, outlined in the revised Power Sector Masterplan-2016.
The project director said, “This project began in 2016 and it took us nearly four years to acquire land, secure finance, float the tender and select contractors.”
“Since 2020, this project has made satisfactory progress and we hope to complete it within the stipulated time,” he added. A Chinese consortium involving CCC Engineering Ltd, Jiangsu ETERN Co Ltd and Fujian Electric Power Company is implementing the project.
A primary deal to finance it was signed between the two countries during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s China visit in 2019.
