The government has taken a Tk915 crore project to improve power distribution system in Rajshahi division to meet the growing demand for electricity in the area where many agro-based industries are being set up.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the project in a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at the NEC conference room yesterday.
Installation of 1,375km new power distribution line, revamping of 1,808km old distribution line, setting up of sub power station with various capacity and land development will come under the Power Distribution System Development Project, Rajshahi Zone.
Once it is completed by the year 2018 under the supervision of Power Development Board, around 200,000 people in 60 upazilas of Rajshahi will be under electricity coverage, which will increase 775 megawatt load of electricity and reduce 4% system loss.
Of the total project cost, the government will provide Tk880 crore from the national exchequer and the organisation concerned which owns the project will bear Tk34.98 crore.
The project was one of the five development projects worth more than Tk1,205 crore, which was approved by the Ecnec yesterday. Of the total cost of the five projects, the government will provide Tk1,170 crore from the national exchequer and the organisations concerned will spend Tk34.94 crore from their own funds.
After the Ecnec meeting, State Minister for Finance MA Mannan said the Northwest Power Distribution Company will start the work soon.
He said the auto rice mills, cold storage, poultry farms and various agro-based industries are being set up in the areas.
Besides, due to the already established export processing zone in Rajshahi and an increasing number of educational institutions in Pabna, the power demand has increased in the area, he added.
He said several peaking power plants, independent power plants and rental power plants have been set up, but power supply from these plants would not be possible without developing power distribution infrastructure.
Apart from the power project, Ecnec also approved a project to establish a textile institute in Jamalpur at a cost of Tk62.5 crore.
The project will create 80 textile engineers and technology experts every year to meet the demand in the local industry that requires 44,863 textile engineers every year.
Of the number, 10,189 engineers are recruited locally while others are recruited from India and Sri Lank. The Ministry of Textiles and Jute will complete the project by 2018 taking fund from the national exchequer.
Three other approved projects are residential building construction at the Dhaka University for the staff at Tk87.81 crore, research work for raising crop production by extensive use of technology having less-water consumption capacity at Tk39.02 crore and small irrigation project in Barisal at Tk101.18 crore.
