Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will start a feasibility study to establish a coal-fired power plant in Chittagong coast in July this year, officials said.
The JICA has already sought Power Division's cooperation to get necessary permissions from different ministries and departments to carry out the study in Matarbari and Maheskhali areas, they added.
"The plant will be run by imported coal and that's why a port will be built along the Chittagong coast. The JICA team, as part of the feasibility study, will at first carry out a survey for port planning and designing," Power Division's assistant chief Syed Mahbubur Rahman was quoted by the Financial Express (FE), a local newspaper, as saying.
In a letter JICA's South Asia Division Director Ichiguchi Tomohide especially sought data about the sea conditions and meteorological phenomena in both rainy and dry seasons to smoothly carry out the study.
The government has plans to set up seven coal-based power plants to generate 4,000 megawatt (mw) power by 2014.
Of them, six will be owned by private entrepreneurs while the government will set up one plant. Imported coal will fuel these plants if local coal can't be extracted.
Currently the country has only one coal-fired power plant of 250mw capacity which is fuelled by extracted coal from Barapukuria coalmine. The government has planned to set up another plant with 250mw electricity generation capacity from the same coalmine.
At present, 82 percent electricity is generated from natural gas, five per cent from furnace oil, seven per cent from diesel and six per cent from water and coal.
BBN/SSR/AD-26June12-11:33 am (BST)
