Govt moves for more power plants in Feni to feed economic zones

The government will acquire more land in Sonagazi upazila of Feni to build four combined cycle power plants to meet the rising energy demand from Chattogram's under-construction economic zones, including Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar.

Besides, a solar and a wind power plant will also be built on 386.44 acres of land, which will cost Tk21.19 crore to acquire, said officials of the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB), the implementing organisation.

Each of the combined cycle power plants will have 600MW capacity, while the solar and wind power plants will have capacities of 100MW and 24MW, respectively.

At present, a 75MW solar-based power plant is under construction at Sonagazi at a cost of Tk746.76 crore. The World Bank is lending Tk621 crore to this project.

The work of establishing the country's largest economic zone, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar (BSMSN), is underway on 30,000 acres of land in Mirsrai and Sitakunda upazilas of Chattogram and Sonagazi upazila of Feni.

The new power plants have been planned mainly with the aim of supplying electricity to the Shilpa Nagar.

Md Nazmul Alam, executive director at the EGCB, said the state-run company has already acquired 1,000 acres of land in Sonagazi where the 75MW solar power plant is under construction.

"Now a new 100MW solar power plant will be established with a Singapore-based company, Hero Asia Singapore," he mentioned.

Once the land is acquired, construction work will start on the solar power plant and also a 24MW wind power plant, Nazmul Alam said.

He noted that it will take time to build the combined cycle power plants because they will be built in stages according to the priority of the government.

Officials of the EGCB said a wind power project was taken up earlier in Sonagazi but was unsuccessful. To ensure success this time, they are actively pursuing proper project implementation based on a comprehensive survey.

The Bangladesh Power Development Board constructed a 0.9MW wind-based power plant near the dam along the River Muhuri in Sonagazi in 2005. Three years later, a 1MW wind power plant was constructed in Kutubdia, Cox's Bazar.

However, both the plants are now inoperative due to a lack of supervision and interest of the power development board.

Meanwhile, as part of the land acquisition project approval process, a project evaluation committee meeting will be held at the Planning Commission on Sunday.

As per the land acquisition proposal, the target of land acquisition will be achieved by next year.