The government is going to retender the procurement of coal for the 1,320-megawatt thermal power plant in Patuakhali for the fifth occasion after the previous four bids in as many as four years went abortive.
鈥楾he decision of retendering the coal import was taken in the past week,鈥� said Power, Energy and Mineral Resources adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan on Saturday.
He also said that the specifications of the tender would be changed so that no specific bidder gets privileges.
A joint-venture company -- RPCL-NORINCO Intl Power Limited with a 50:50 partnership -- operates the power plant built by the state-owned Rural Power Company Limited and Chinese state-owned company NORINCO International Cooperation Limited at an estimated cost of $2.54 billion.
The major part of the construction cost came as loans from the Exim Bank of China and the Bank of China.
Already having completed the trial generation, the power plant cannot go in a full-fledged operation because of the lack of coal supply in power-starved Bangladesh relying heavily on neighbouring India to meet the demand.
Energy expert Badrul Imam resented that a supplier could have been appointed in the past four years when things could have been speeded up in the national interest.
鈥業t shows ineffectiveness of government bodies,鈥� he commented.聽聽聽聽聽
In the fourth tender that was floated in February, a Chinese company -- Yongtai Energy Pte Ltd 鈥� qualified technically, but its meeting with the tender evaluation committee over financial negotiation was not successful, said a Power Division official.
Yongtai Energy had also qualified in the second and third round biddings held in January 2024 and November 2024.聽聽聽
Badrul Imam said that supply deals for power plants were always tricky because of intense competitions among bidders, irrespective of compliant or non-compliant companies.
The failure to find out a supplier despite repeated tenders will incur losses for the joint venture company.
Admitting the financial losses, the power and energy adviser said that they wanted more than one company to qualify in the retender.
A single bidder qualifying on all occasions may also come under an inquiry of the Anti-Corruption Commission, he said.
The RPCL-NORINCO Intl Power Limited wants to select a supplier for the import of coal from Indonesia for its plant for five years.
Based on the power plant consuming 4 million tonnes of coal annually, the overall five-year supply deal would involve around $22 billion in a calculation as per the current market price of top quality Indonesian coal.
