The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved a development project to acquire some 1000 acres of land to set up 1320 MW ultra super critical coal-based power plant.
The approval came from the ECNEC meeting held at the NEC conference room in city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar with its chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair on Tuesday, reports BSS.
The coal-based power plant will be set up at Dhankhali union under Kolapara upazila of Patuakhali district involving Tk782.63 crore. Apart from 1000 acres of land acquisition and development, there will be 9 kilometre River embankment construction and maintenance, 59 km 33 KV electricity line construction, construction of one 33/11 KV sub-station, 9 km boundary wall, 5 km approach road and 2 km internal road will be implemented under the project, the report said. Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said: “The ECNEC approved a total of seven projects, of which four are new projects while three are revised projects.” He informed these seven development projects would require a total cost of Tk2170.75 crore. "Of the total project cost, Tk1664.73 crore will come from the national exchequer while Tk191.11 crore will come as project assistance and the organisations concerned will contribute Tk314.91 crore from own fund," Kamal added. The minister said North-West Power Generation Company Ltd (NWPGC) will implement the project titled "Land Acquisition, Land Development and Protection for Paira 1320 MW Thermal Power Plant" by December 2015. “Once the process for land acquisition is completed, the work for the project would start likely by a Chinese company,” he added. The day's ECNEC meeting also approved another project titled 'Roads, drain, footpaths development and construction for 1, 3-14 Sectors of Uttara Model Town' with Tk119.91 crore to be completed by June 2017.
Of the total project cost, Tk83.94 crore will come from the national exchequer while Tk35.97 crore from the organisation's own fund. Under the project, there will be 36 km road development, construction of 47 km drain, 21 km footpaths at the Sector 1, Sector 3-14 of Uttara Model Town. The ECNEC meeting gave nod to another project titled 'Climate Change Adaptation Project' with Tk141 crore of which Tk70.50 crore will come from the government exchequer while Tk70.50 crore from DANIDA. Some 10 upazilas of five coastal districts like Patuakhali, Barguna, Barisal, Noakhali and Laxmipur will be covered under the project.
There will be 317 km roads/embankment re-sectioning, 20 km rural road development, construction of 6 km cc block road, re-excavation of 20 km canals alongside imparting training to 15,000 distressed and working women under the project. The other projects approved in the meeting are Sylhet Division Small Irrigation Development (Tk138.06 crore), Tuber (Kondal) Crops Development Project, 2nd revised (Tk594.36 crore), protecting Alatuli area of Chapainawabganj district from River erosion of River Padma (Tk274.18 crore), Promotion of Service and Opportunities to the Disabled Persons in Bangladesh, 2nd revised (Tk120.61 crore). Ministers, State Ministers, Planning Commission members, Secretaries and other high officials attended the meeting.