Bangladesh to import Indonesian coal for Payra plant

The country will import four million tonnes of coal from Indonesia annually for the next 10 years to run the newly constructed 1,320-megawatt coal-fired power plant at Payra in Patuakhali.

The first consignment of coal is expected to reach the Payra Port by late July or early August this year and will continue till 2030.

To this end, Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL), the project implementing body, inked an agreement with PT Bayan Resources Tbk, an Indonesia-based coal mining company, at a city hotel on Monday.

Dr Low Tuck Kwong, chief executive officer of PT Bayan Resources, and Dipak Kumar Dhali, company secretary of North-West Power Generation Company Limited (NWPGCL), signed the deal on behalf of respective sides.

The BCPCL is a 50:50 joint venture between the North-West Power Generation Company Ltd (NWPGCL) of Bangladesh and the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC) of China.

Apart from the Indonesian firm, the Bangladesh-China joint venture company will also import coal from Australian coal supplier - the Yancoal, said BCPCL officials.

The thermal power plant will be the first to go into operation with imported coal.

The first unit, having a capacity of 660MW, will go into operation by December 2019, while the second unit will start power generation by June 2020.

Some 12,000 tonnes of coal will be required daily to run each unit of the power plant.

The prime minister’s Power Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury attended the signing ceremony as chief guest.

Principal SDG Coordinator to Prime Minister’s Office Md Abul Kalam Azad, Chairman of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Monowar Islam, Secretary to Power Division Dr Ahmad Kaikaus, and BCPCL Managing Director AM Khorshedul Alam, among others, were present at the event.