China has made a fresh proposal to set up two power plants with a combined capacity of 810 megawatts in Bangladesh on a Chinese government loan, officials said.
CCC Engineering Ltd, a subsidiary of China National Electric Wire & Cable Imp/Exp Corporation, on July 16 submitted a proposal to the Power Development Board to set up a 660MW coal-fired power plant at Barapukuria in Dinajpur and a 150MW dual-fuel plant in Khulna.
Both gas and fuel-oil would be used in the power plant to be set up in Khulna.
Earlier, another Chinese state-run company – China Hudian Hong Kong Company – proposed to install another coal-fired power plant of 1,320MW capacity on Maheshkhali Island in Cox’s Bazar.
CHHKC will import the coal for the proposed power plant.
A Power Division official said the Chinese ministry of commerce had already approved the draft MoU sent by the Bangladesh Power Division early this year.
He said the MoU would be signed between the PDB and the CHHKC during the Chinese commerce minister’s visit to Bangladesh scheduled for August.
In the new proposal, CCC Engineering offered long-term ‘government concessional loans and preferential buyer’s credit’ at a ‘low’ interest through China Exim Bank for setting up the two power plants.
Yan Wei, president of CCC Engineering, in a letter said, ‘… we assure you of  very favourable credit terms and conditions and also will offer a very competitive price of electricity to be produced by the plants. ’
The Chinese company said it would apply ‘super critical technology’ in setting up the 660MW power plant.
In late 2011, a power division team visited China when PDB and CHHKC initialled an agreement to install the 1,320MW power plant at Maheshkhali.
Following the development, a CHHKC team visited the site in 2011.
A Power Division official said that the government had already asked the deputy commissioner of Cox’s Bazar to acquire 5,000 acres of land for the plant.
The plant at Maheshkhali is the second coal-fired venture undertaken by the government as PDB and Indian National Thermal Power Company in January 29 signed an agreement to form a joint-venture company named Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company.
The two coal-fired mega plants with a capacity of 1,320MW each will require a total of 8,333 tonnes of coal every day.
The government planned to generate around 20,000MW electricity from coal-based power plants by 2030 out of which 11,250MW would be produced by indigenous coal while the rest would be generated by imported coal.