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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide US$ 185 million to Bangladesh as loan aimed at boosting the country’s power supply system.
The Government and ADB on April 3 signed a loan agreement in this regard. Saifuddin Ahmed, Joint Secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) and Stefan Ekelund, Deputy Country Director and Officer-in-Charge of ADB’s Bangladesh Resident Mission, put pen on the paper at a ceremony at NEC-II conference room in city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
The assistance is the first tranche of ADB financing under an overall multi-donor- supported project entitled Power System Expansion and Efficiency Improvement Investment Programme of US$ 1.6 billion, with ADB contributing US$700 million.
The other co-financiers supporting the programme include Agence FranØaise de Dveloppement, the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the Islamic Development Bank. The investments are part of a broader government plan to reform and strengthen the power sector, tapping private sector financing.
The goal is to raise generating capacity to more than 12,500 megawatts and the rate of electrification to 68 percent by 2015.
The assistance under the first tranche will help convert four open cycle power plants to combined cycle plants, raising both their power generation capacity and operational efficiency up to 50 percent.
It will also construct three transmission lines and associated substations, further strengthen the high voltage network and power dispatch capacity, improve reliability of the transmission system, and reduce transmission losses.
The overall programme will connect 450,000 households to the power grid and reduce carbon emissions by almost 2.5 million tons per year when the project is completed in 2018.
Power system and financial management training will be given to staff in sector institutions, and a pilot project with around 200 solar energy-driven irrigation pumps will be established, benefiting around 4,000 poor farming families.
Source: energy bangla |
