No significant progress in Anwara 300 -MW Power Plant Project

Chattogram Bureau :

The 300- MW power plant project at Anwara Upazila in South Chattagram failed to make any significant progress in two years as United Group, which was awarded contract by the government, completed only 10 percent of the project since 2016.
Referring to a progress report placed at a review meeting last month, Power Division officials said, the company achieved 10 percent progress in both area of financing and civil construction although the government awarded the contract to the company to implement it on a fast-track basis. As per the rescheduled commercial operation date (RCOD), the project is supposed to come into operation in April next year.
But state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) officials have doubt whether the company will be able to come into operation as per the stipulated timeframe.
They said it is almost impossible to complete the remaining 90 percent work in the next 5 months.
PDB officials said the 300-MW furnace oil-fired (HFO) power plant project was awarded to the United Enterprises & Company Limited, a subsidiary of United Group, under a contract to implement the project within 15 months.
A contract was signed in this regard on November 13, 2016. But the commercial operation date (COD) was later rescheduled and fixed at February 11, 2019. But again it was rescheduled to April 25, 2019.
On behalf of the government, the PDB signed a contract with United Group to purchase electricity from the project. PDB officials said the sponsor company appointed an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor few months back and took preparation for site development.
A PDB senior official said there was a conflict between the state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd (CUFL) and United Group over a land of about 1.4 acres located in the project area.
The PDB official informed that the CUFL authorities closed a half km approach road to the power project claiming that about 1.4 acres of its land were illegally occupied by the power project developer.
Following the closure of the road, work on the power plant project came to a halt virtually.
After the incident, the power plant sponsor approached the local administration to resolve the problem with the government fertilizer factory.
Finally, with the initiative of the Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong and the Ministry of Industries, the dispute was resolved, said the officials. Project director Kamruzzaman was contacted over mobile phone for his comment but he did not respond.