First-ever waste-to-energy plant gets procurement committee nod

The Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement has approved the country's first-ever waste-to-energy plant project to be built in Narayanganj at a cost of Tk1,665.48 crore.

It also approved six more projects at a cost of Tk1,065 crore on Wednesday. 

The waste-to-energy plant will be built by a private company on the build-own-operate basis. The Bangladesh Power Development Board will purchase electricity from the plant for 20 years.

Chinese company Consortium of UD Environmental Equipment Technology Co Ltd is the financer of the 6-megawatt plant. It is the owner of the plant while Everbright Environmental Protection Technology and Equipment (Changzhou) Limited will provide the equipment. 

Md Humayun Kabir, country director of Consortium of UD Environmental Equipment Technology, said they are committed to build the plant on schedule.

"This is a remarkable progress for the project. We intend to start implementing the project after the contract is signed," he said.

On September 13, 2018, the Bangladesh Power Development Board first floated the tender for the project.

Earlier on March 21 that year, the Bangladesh Power Development Board and Narayanganj City Corporation inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up the plant. 

As per the MoU, the city corporation will give 10 acres of land for the plant and will provide 500 tonnes of solid waste per day. 

The government has long been trying to set up a waste-to-energy plant. However, due to waste management, the initiative did not see the expected progress.

In 2013, the local government department inked an agreement with an Italian company to set up a waste-to-energy plant of 50-megawatt capacity. But the project did not move forward as the company declared itself bankrupt.

6 more purchase proposals approved

The Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement approved six more procurement proposals worth Tk1,065 crore, said Nasima Begum, additional secretary to the Cabinet Division.

She said the proposal to purchase 102,720 SPC poles in two lots from the Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory was approved under the project to expand distribution network (1st amendment) for 100% rural electrification in Dhaka, Mymensingh, Chattogram and Sylhet. The government will spend Tk164 crore on this. 

The committee approved a proposal to import 30,000 tonnes of bagged granular urea fertiliser in the fourth lot out of 550,000 tonnes as per the contract with Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company Limited for the current financial year. It will cost about Tk67 crore. 

The committee approved the import of 30,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid at a cost of Tk87 crore for DAP Fertiliser Company Limited under the Ministry of Industries. 

The meeting also approved a proposal to officially import 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia. It will cost Tk437 crore. 

Nasima said the committee had approved a purchase proposal for various tasks, including construction of footpaths, bridges, and culverts under the upgradation of Kurigram (Dasherhat)-Nageshwari-Bhurungamari-Sonahat Land Port Road to national highway. It will cost Tk145 crore. The project will be jointly implemented by Spectra Engineers Ltd and Rana Builders Pvt Ltd. 

She said a proposal to build flats for government officials at Azimpur in the capital under the multi-storey residential building construction project to be implemented by the Department of Public Works was asked to be raised at the next meeting with some more information. 

Earlier, a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the finance minister gave approval in principle for the import of 50 lakh tonnes of refined fuel for the period of January to December in fiscal year 2020-21.