When political will favoured a billionaire: A foreign media exposé of a dirty deal 

Bangladesh's power purchase agreement with India's Adani Power Limited has long been criticised as lopsided and costly. A recent report by a review committee has now added allegations of corruption and political manoeuvring during the ousted Awami League government's tenure.

The committee, tasked with examining major power contracts signed under Sheikh Hasina's administration, has described the Adani deal as heavily skewed in favour of the Indian conglomerate, raising fresh questions about transparency, national interest and accountability.

International scrutiny of the deal is not new. Even before Adani's Godda Thermal Power Station in Jharkhand reached full commissioning, The Washington Post published a detailed investigation on 8 December 2022, months before the plant became operational. 

The report argued that the agreement would generate enormous profits for Gautam Adani while delivering a poor outcome for both Bangladesh and India.

The article, titled "How political will often favors a coal billionaire and his dirty fossil fuel", portrayed the Godda project as a striking example of how Adani used political favour to his interest. 

It said the plant made little economic sense, especially given Bangladesh's surplus power capacity.

According to the report, the groundwork for the project was laid during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to Dhaka in June 2015, a year after Hasina regime held an election widely criticised as one-sided and boycotted by most opposition political parties.  

The visit was hailed as diplomatically productive, with the settlement of a decades-old border dispute and the signing of a $4.5 billion deal allowing Indian public and private companies to sell electricity to Bangladesh.

Soon after, Bangladesh's power authority signed a contract with Adani to build a $1.7 billion, 1,600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Godda, about 60 miles from the Bangladesh border. 

The project aligned with Modi's "Neighbourhood First" foreign policy and his push to promote Indian businesses abroad. The report cited an Indian foreign ministry readout saying Modi had asked Hasina to "facilitate the entry of Indian companies in the power generation, transmission and distribution sector of Bangladesh". 

At the time, Hasina's government projected that electricity demand, driven by garment factories and expanding cities, would triple by 2030. However, the agreement obtained by The Washington Post suggested the 25-year deal was hardly favourable for Bangladesh. 

Under its terms, Bangladesh must pay Adani around $450 million annually in capacity and maintenance charges, regardless of whether any electricity is supplied, said the report.

Energy analyst Tim Buckley, based in Sydney, said such charges were steep by industry standards. 

The agreement was signed despite Bangladesh already having significant excess capacity. Government figures show the country had around 40% more generation capacity than peak demand, following years of heavy investment in coal- and gas-fired plants.

Unlike other power import agreements reviewed by The Washington Post, which include price caps to protect Bangladesh from spikes in coal prices, the Godda deal requires Bangladesh to pay the full market price. 

Buckley said this meant Adani's electricity would cost more than five times the market price of bulk electricity in Bangladesh. Even with coal prices returning to pre-war levels, he estimated that electricity from Godda would cost 33% more per kilowatt-hour than power from Bangladesh's own coal-fired plants. 

Compared with the Kaptai solar project, Adani's power could be five times more expensive. "It's an absolute gouge," Buckley said.

Environmental campaigner Hasan Mehedi said around 60% of Bangladesh's power plants were sitting idle on a typical day, warning that the Godda project would further lock the country into coal. 

Former power regulator BD Rahmatullah, who reviewed the Adani contract, said Hasina was constrained by geopolitical realities. 

"She knows what is bad and what is good," he said. "But she knows, 'If I satisfy Adani, Modi will be happy.' Bangladesh now is not even a state of India. It is below that."

The report further detailed the rise of Gautam Adani. It said Adani's rise coincided with Modi's political ascent. Their mutual rapport, dating to the 1990s in Gujarat, facilitated favourable deals, including Mundra SEZ land at minimal cost and the Godda plant. 

Modi's administration amended laws, eased regulatory hurdles, and granted discounted coal supplies, boosting Adani's coal empire.

Local opposition in Godda was suppressed. Hunger strikes, protests, and environmental concerns were overruled; police intervention jailed dissenting leaders, allowing the plant to proceed.

Sheikh Hasina and her government were toppled in the face of a mass uprising on 5 August 2024. She now lives in exile in India.