Two foreign ships, carrying 88,000 tons of coal, are set to arrive in Bangladesh for Rampal thermal power plant this month.
The Indonesian ships are expected to dock at Mongla port on Wednesday, and February 16.
The first ship, “MV S Pinel”, would be carrying 33,000 tons of coal, and the second ship is expected to carry 55,000 tons of coal.
The ships will first anchor at Mongla port, and then the coal will be transferred to Rampal thermal power plant through lighter vessels.
In this regard, Manager Riazul Haquer of shipping agent M/S Togi Shipping, said: "A ship will bring 33,000 tons of coal from Indonesia. It will reach Mongla port on Wednesday. After that, coal will be fully offloaded from the ship in eight days and delivered to Rampal thermal power plant.”
He added: “On February 16, another foreign ship will bring 55,000 tons of coal. The coal of this ship will also go to the Rampal thermal power plant.”
According to sources, the financial issues surrounding the Rampal thermal power plant have been addressed. The Bangladesh Power Development Board has paid 90% of the outstanding dues, and the government has guaranteed payment for incoming coal.
Sayeed Akram Ullah, managing director (MD) of Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL) said: "Due to disruption of coal supply from Indonesia, power generation at Rampal plant was halted.”
“The delay in releasing dollars was the root cause, but that issue has been resolved. A ship has departed with coal,” the official said.
"Regular coal supply will resume from now, and Rampal will be able to generate electricity using the coal from June," he stated. "Efforts are underway to activate the second unit, ensuring a total generation capacity of 13,20MW with no further issues."
On Saturday, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma visited the Rampal power plant.
He said: “Coal crisis is an operational issue. We are working on it. Hopefully, this crisis will pass. The power generation from the two units will be fully operational within the next three months.”
On January 14, the authorities suspended production at the Rampal power station because of a shortage of coal - only 29 days after the first unit of the plant went into commercial electricity generation.
According to sources at Rampal Power Plant, Bangladesh Bank was delaying the approval of opening the Letter of Credit (LC) for coal import due to the dollar shortage.
BIFPCL had written to the Power Department and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) in this regard.
On January 10 and 11, the senior officials of the power plant held several rounds of meetings with various levels of officials of Bangladesh Bank.
