Coal shipment for Rampal plant arrives at Mongla

A ship carrying 31,700 tonnes of coal for Rampal Thermal Power Plant has arrived at Mongla Port in Bagerhat.

The vessel, Bashundhara Empress, was anchored at Harbaria-12 area of Mongla port on Sunday morning. The power plant, which shut down due to a shortage of coal, will resume production soon, said sources.

Khandkar Riazul Haque, assistant manager of the ship's local shipping agent Toggi Shipping & Logistics Limited in Khulna, said that Bashundhara Empress left Indonesia on July 24 with a total of 49,700 tonnes of coal for Rampal Thermal Power Plant.

“When the ship arrived at Chittagong Port on August 5, 18,000 tonnes of coal was unloaded. The ship arrived at Mongla port with the remaining coal which will be supplied to the power plant, using lighter vessels,” he added.

Deputy General Manager of Rampal Power Plant Anwarul Azim said, “Required coal for Rampal Thermal Power Plant has arrived at Mongla port. Now the process of unloading coal from there and supplying it to the power plant is going on.”

He added that the thermal power plant will restart producing electricity within a few days.

The first unit of the 1320-megawatt coal-fired plant went into commercial production in December last year. It is capable of supplying 620-630 MW of electricity to the national grid per day through the Mongla-Mawa-Aminbazar gridline.

However, the plant was shut down five times in seven months after it was commissioned and another outage happened on July 16 due to a technical fault at its turbine. Production resumed on July 20 after the turbine was repaired.

Bangladesh and India jointly initiated the thermal power plant project in 2010 and formed the joint venture company with an agreement in 2012. The Bangladesh Power Development Board and India's National Thermal Power Corporation own a 50 per cent share of the company each.

In October 2013, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone of the power station constructed on 1,034 acres of land in Sapmari-Katakhali and Kairgdashkathi areas in Rampal upazila of Bagerhat district.