The state minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources yesterday said environmental activists were envisaging a “baseless” scenario in the Sundarbans.
He said the hotly contested siting of the coal-based was not a threat to the mangrove forest in general or to the portion of it that has been declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Responding to a protest march organised by the Communist Party of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal, State Minister Nasrul Hamid said the siting of the Rampal power plant would ensure balance in the country’s production of electricity.
“There has not been any large scale power plant in the southern part of the country. The southern coastal area has been chosen for obvious benefits because of its proximity to the sea. You cannot call it balanced electricity production if we build huge plants on one side and none on the other,” he said in a press briefing at Bidyut Bhaban yesterday.
The plant site is 69 kilometres from the Unesco World Heritage Site and 14 kilometres from the edge of the Sundarbans forest.
The 1,320MW coal-based Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant is a joint venture of Bangladeshi state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) and Indian state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation Limited.
U K Bhattacharya, managing director of Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt) Limited (BIFPCL) which owns the plant, said that the modern technology planned for use in the plant would prevent the emission of harmful dark smoke and ash.
He said that the Environment Monitoring Plan (EMP) for the Rampal plant had been completed for the last six quarters since January 2014. All of the data is regularly uploaded on the BIFPCL website for Department of Environment (DoE) and public reference, he added.
The BIFPCL managing director said coal would be covered during transport to the plant to prevent water and air pollution and added that polluted water would not be discharged into water bodies and rivers.
He said half a million saplings would be planted in the area to work as a carbon sink.
Power Cell Director General Mohammad Hossain, former additional director general of Department of Environment Mohammad Shahjahan and renowned environmentalist Ansarul Karim also spoke at the briefing.