Three top-tier international companies yesterday submitted tender documents to set up the 2 x 660MW Maitree Super Coal-fired Thermal Power Plant in Rampal on an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract basis.
“Six international bidders had bought tender documents. Of them, three interested companies submitted tender documents to set up the Maitree Super Coal-fired Thermal Power Plant,” Managing Director U K Bhattacharya of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Pvt Ltd (BIFPCL), the project’s implementation agency, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“This is a good news for us. We hope that we can complete the project on time,” he said.
The government expects to begin generating electricity at Rampal power plant by December 2018. The estimated cost of the project is around $2 billion.
The companies are Japan-based Marubeni Corporation, China-based Harbin Electric International Company Limited and India-based Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.
They each submitted techno-commercial and financial bid documents. Only, the techno-commercial bid documents were opened yesterday.
An eight-member committee headed by U K Bhattacharya will evaluate the techno-commercial bids and will only consider the financial bid documents of those companies whose techno-commercial bids qualify.
“We hope to finally select a company to award the deal to by January 2016,” a senior BIFPCL official said.
“Banks in the countries where the bidding companies are based have shown an interest in investing in the Rampal project. The companies which are interested in building the power plant have convinced banks in their home countries to invest in the project,” he added.
On February 12, BIFPCL invited bids to set up the plant. The original May 18 deadline was extended to July 16 because the invitation for bids drew a poor response. The final deadline was set for September 22.
BIFPCL is a joint-venture between Bangladesh’s Power Development Board and India’s National Thermal Power Corporation, who jointly have 30% equity on an equal share basis. The remaining 70% will be mobilised as Export Credit Agency loans and bank financing.
The government plans to set up a series of coal-fired power projects to generate an additional 20,000MW of electricity by the year 2030.
