State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has blasted an Indian firm for a 30-month delay in completing work on 24 power substations in Dhaka.
This outburst took place during the inauguration of the newly constructed substations, each of which contain 33-11 kV capacity power, of the Dhaka Electric Supply Company (Desco) on Thursday.
“Please, reconsider awarding contracts to those bidders who delay or fail to complete the jobs as per schedule,” he told power sector officials in a virtually delivered speech.
The event, with Desco Chairman and Additional Secretary of the Power Division Sheikh Faizul Amin in the chair, was also addressed by Power Secretary Habibur Rahman and Desco Managing Director Kausar Ameer Ali.
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The Desco chief noted that the contractor of the project started work in 2017, but took an additional 30 months to complete it.
Nasrul instructed the top officials of Desco, the project implementing agency, to impose liquidated damage (LD) as penalty for this delay.
“Many of the industries have been deprived of electricity supply due to the delay in completing the job… for this, they have to incur major financial losses,” he told the officials, urging them to take action against Indian firm.
Additionally, he alleged that the same contractor had installed a power substation at his constituency in Keraniganj, which is substandard and fails to function properly.
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“You must take into consideration such failed companies while awarding any contract for the future,” said the state minister.
He also advised Desco to take immediate measures for upgrading the newly installed substations, or else they will lose their capacity by 2025.
“If you do not initiate an up-gradation project, these substations will not work after 2025,” he said, adding that Desco has to take immediate action as the tendering process takes a prolonged amount of time.
The Desco managing director informed that they had to spend Tk3,75.51 crore to build the new substations at 24 locations across the city, which will serve 450,000 consumers by allowing them to receive quality electricity, and help reduce system loss by 1.21% from existing 8.5% to 7.29%.