Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Ltd (BIFPCL) authority has deferred the commercial operation date of 1,320 MW Rampal Power Plant once again without fixing a new time schedule.
In January 29 of 2012, the Power Development Board (PDB) signed an agreement with Indian NTPC to build the 1,320 megawatt Rampal plant. The project was identified as a "Fast track' project under Prime Minister Office supervision, however, the construction of the coal power plant started in April 2017.
"According to a July 2014 report, the project will start commercial generation by December 2018," a senior official said. After missing several deadlines due to pandemic and other issues
in 2022 Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor of this project have rescheduled the new dates of the COD, accordingly it will be July 2022 and November 2022 for the first unit and 2nd unit respectively, Sayeed Akram Ullah, Managing Director of BIFPCL told the Daily Observer earlier.
The BIFPCL authority has said that Payra-Gopalganj-Rampal 400 Kv to 230 Kv Khulna line through Rampal has already been completed from April 7 to June 16 of 2022 to transport the Rampal power. The Boiler-1 of the power plant commissioned on June 4 in 2022 and light-up was completed on May 13 this year.
Turbine generator (TG)-1 was put on barring gear on May 31 and trial-run of the coal handling plant (CHP) coal conveyor belt 1,2,3,4 and 5 has been done, which means that all necessary work has been completed. "Since March 2020, the Covid situation exposed the people of both the countries to a new challenge along with affecting the implementation of the Maitree project. Now both sides are putting the best efforts to complete the project in time," earlier, the Indian power ministry in a statement said.
The BIFPCL is constructing the 1,320 MW Rampal plant, a joint venture of India's NTPC Ltd and Bangladesh Power Development Board, at a cost of US$2 billion at 14 kilometres north of the Bangladesh part of the Sundarban, also a UNESCO world heritage site.
