When the government is desperate to prevent electricity load shedding, Islami Bank's arbitrariness is about to close the Banshkhali 1320 MW coal-based power plant. The Power Development Board fears that if the new big power plant is closed, the overall situation may go out of control.
And this complication has been created due to the arbitrariness of Islami Bank Bangladesh Plc. The bank has withheld the money of 8 LCs (line of credit) opened with 100% margin. That is why three ships loaded with coal have come to outer anchortage, but the coal clearance has been stopped. On the other hand, the coal reserves of the power plant are running out fast. The 1,320 MW power plant requires 12,000 metric tons of coal daily for full production. And coal reserves are only 60 thousand metric tons. As such there is only 5 days of coal reserves. The power plant will be shut down next week if coal cannot be unloaded from the ships at anchor.
Severe load-shedding has started across the country for a few days, with the Barapukuria coal-based power plant shutting down completely and a unit of the Rampal power plant due to mechanical failure. Besides, gas crisis has made the situation more complicated. There is no possibility of increasing gas supply in a few months. Due to which the power division is not able to eliminate the unbearable load shedding even if it wants to.
Unpleasant incidents are being reported in various areas including Noakhali in protest against load shedding. There have already been reports of vandalism in Noakhali. If another 1320 megawatt power plant is shut down at this time, the power sector stakeholders feel that it will be very difficult to handle the situation.
Chairman of the Power Development Board Rezaul Karim himself acknowledged this apprehension. He said, if the production of that center is stopped due to any reason, the load shedding will increase further. We advised them to open LC in another bank.
Tan Jheling, Managing Director of Banskhali 1320 MW coal-based power plant located in Gandamara area of Banskhali (Chattogram) near the Bay of Bengal, told Barta24.com that 8 LCs are opened through Islami Bank with 100% margin. Out of this, 5 LCs have been cleared of coal, 3 of these LCs were scheduled to release money on 6th, 11th and 22nd of last August respectively. That money was also not released.
The exporters have stopped unloading coal from 3 ships (1 lakh 68 thousand tons) that came to Chattagram port's outer anchorage due to non receipt of the previous coal bill. They refused to unload the coal until the previous bill was confirmed. The Indonesian supplier is making repeated requests to Islamic Bank through the Beneficiary Bank. He commented that Islami Bank has threatened to stop business with Bangladesh without getting any response.
The official of Banshkhali power plant said that if the coal is not released soon, there will be no option but to close the power plant. We hope the issues will be resolved before then. On the one hand, there is a fear of production stop due to non-release of LC, as well as a 60,000 dollars penalty is being added for the day that the ship is sitting. Already fined over 1 million dollars.
In response to a question, he said, there is no loan in the name of SS Power-1 in any branch of Islami Bank. Why only Islami Bank has no loan in any bank in Bangladesh. All the loans are in foreign banks. Islami Bank Gulshan Circle-1 branch has a current account. There are about Tk. 165 crore deposits outside of LC. Since the money is not released from that account, it has become difficult to manage the daily activities including paying the salaries of the Chinese engineers.
After receiving no response from the bank's Gulshan branch, a written application was submitted to the head office on August 12. Still no solution is being done, the company has written a letter to the new governor of Bangladesh Bank.
Banskhali power plant is known to be cost effective among coal based power plants. That is why the name of Banshkhali is first in the list of cost generation of the Power Development Board. Fuel consumption per unit of electricity is around Tk. 7.56. If the same amount of electricity is supplied with furnace oil, it will cost about Tk. 18. The 1320 megawatt capacity power plant can supply about 95 crore units of electricity per month if it is in full production. In order to get the same amount of electricity from furnace oil instead of coal, the government will have to multiply an additional Tk. 950 crore which could pose a huge challenge for the Interim government. Supplying that amount of electricity is very complicated not only financially but also technically.