PM Hasina to inaugurate Matarbari coal-fired plant in Dec: Officials

The first unit of Matarbari coal-fired power plant in Maheshkhali of Cox's Bazar district is likely to go into production by this December, adding 600MW of electricity to the national grid.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the plant, project officials told reporters this week.

A ship carrying 64,300 tonnes of coal for the Matarbari plant arrived from Indonesia on 23 June. The 1,200MW plant has been built on 1,414 acres of land in Matarbari and Dhalghata unions of Maheshkhali upazila of Cox's Bazar.

Along with the construction of the plant with Japanese funding on the coast of Cox's Bazar seven years ago, work has also started on the construction of port infrastructure and jetty for coal unloading from ships.

Executive Director Nazmul Huq, Matarbari coal-fired plant project said PM Hasina will inaugurate the power plant in December.

"But we want to add 600MW power from here before inauguration and that will happen. The first unit of the Matarbari coal-fired power plant is scheduled to be commissioned in January 2024, but we expect to be fully operational by this December," he said.

He mentioned that the second unit will be commissioned next July.

He said electricity from both units will be connected to the national grid.

The executive director mentioned that the project is being worked on by ensuring all necessary measures to prevent environmental pollution.

"The coal will be seen only once when the coal is unloaded from the ship. Then the coal will go directly from the jetty to the plant. It will not pollute the environment," he said.

While visiting the area recently, it was seen that the project implementing company, Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (CPGCL), is going ahead with the work of this mega project.

The work of the jetty for the coal discharge with the power plant is almost finished. Vessels have also started sailing at the jetty.

The project has changed the entire landscape of the area, said officials.

Some 13,104 tonnes of coal will be required daily to generate electricity at full scale. Coal discharge jetties and silos have been constructed for this.

Coal required for 60 days has been kept in the huge silos. Up to 80,000 tonne capacity mother vessels can directly enter the coal jetty. And it will take one and a half to two days to unload the coal from the mother vessel.

Two separate ash ponds are kept to store ash for a lifetime of 25 years of the power plant. One has an area of 90 acres, another spread over 600 acres. Coal yard has been prepared on 80 acres of land for coal storage.

A loan agreement on the project was signed between the Government of Bangladesh and Jica on 16 June 2014. The project cost has been estimated at Tk51,800 crore.

Of this, Tk43,921 crore will be given as project support by JICA and the remaining Tk7,933 crore will be provided from the own funds of Bangladesh Government and CPGCBL.

According to project sources, 95% of the jetty and physical infrastructure work has already been completed and 90% of the overall physical infrastructure work has been done.

Highlighting the overall status of the project, Executive Director Nazmul Huq said, we have two parts of this project, one of which is the power plant, the other is the port.

Cox's Bazar Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Shaheen Imran told reporters that the Matarbari Coal Power Project is a priority project of the prime minister.