Bangladesh and India will jointly build a mega coal-fired power plant at an investment of USD 1.7 billion, having the generation capacity for 1320MW in Khulna near the country’s southeastern Mongla seaport. Bangladesh’s state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) signed a JV deal with Indian state owned National Thermal Power Corp. (NTPC) to build the plant to be run by imported coal. State owned power companies of the 2 neighboring countries also signed a MoU to enhance bilateral cooperation in the power sector. Bangladesh’s power secretary Mr Abul Kalam Azad said that under the proposed joint venture coal-fired power plant, Bangladesh and India would invest 25% of the total costs altogether while the remaining 75% would be met by loans from the external sector. Mr Alamgir Kabir chairman of PDB said that valuation of land will be calculated and could be treated as Bangladesh’s equity in the joint venture coal-fired power plant project. The agreements between NTPC and PDB will, however, require to be ratified by governments of both countries.
