Solar power plant completion takes five more years

The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) was supposed to complete the “Installation of 7.4MW Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Grid Connected Power Generation Plant at Kaptai” project within December 2013, but implementation took an additional five and a half years.

This project – launched in 2012 – was finally completed in December 2019 without any extra costs, reveals a recent report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), while also identifying a number of irregularities and issues with the power plant.

According to the report, the project had no proper guidelines for construction design and future maintenance. As a result, due to the accumulation of excessive dust and dirt on the solar panels, the plant is not providing adequate service.

The control building and rest house built as part of the project are not being used, and the whereabouts of the two vehicles bought under the project are not clear.

A senior official of IMED, on condition of anonymity, told The Business Post that the government provided the fund to implement this development project in Kaptai of Rangamati. Once implemented, the IMED evaluated the completed project’s impacts.

“As experience can be gained from the results obtained through the project evaluation project, the relevant ministry can take action in case of irregularities or corruption. There is a need for such evaluation.”

The report mentions that the project was supposed to start from March 2012 and be implemented by December 2013. But without increasing the cost, the duration of the project was extended by four years in four phases till December 2017.

But as work on the initiative was not completed by that deadline, the tenure was again extended by one year till December 2018, and then by one more year till June 2019. The project was completed in December 2019 with a further extension of six months.

It took 300 per cent more time to implement it, and this issue is one of the weakest aspects of this project. Though the cost has not increased, the return has decreased, mentions the IMED report. The original cost of the project was Tk 192.59 crore.

The implementing agency BPDB spent Tk 104.17 crore on the project.