Govt set to sign power deal with Sino company

An agreement for implementation of an 80-megawatts (MW) power project, being financed by the Power Development Board (PDB), will be signed with Harbin, a Chinese company. The project would cost Tk 369 crore ($ 63 million), much higher than the original estimate.

Three years ago, a Malaysian company had offered to imp0-lement the project at a cost of $31 million.

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Conceived as an emergency project in 1999, the Tongi plant was supposed to go into operation in 2000.

But the project hit a snag over tender bidding due to strong lobbying by a minister of the then Awami League government to favour acertain bidder.

Previous tender bids brought offers ranging from $31 million dollars by the Malaysian company,TNB, to $45.5 million by a Korean company, LG Engineering.

As the PDB move was slowed down by business interest groups with political backing, the Malaysian company withdrew from the bid.

Later, the caretaker government suspended the project along with four other power projects.