Production of Rampal Power Plant resumes

Bagerhat Correspondent :
The 1st phase of Bangladesh-India Friendship coal based Power Plant at Rampal in Bagerhat district resumed its production at Wednesday (February 16) night on experimental basis after the suspension of long one month. But the authorities of the Power Plant are apprehending about its uninterrupted production of electricity for want of dollars and LC problems. It may be mentioned here that the1st phase of the power plant which went into operation in the month of December, 2022 and its production was suddenly suspended on January 14 in the current calendar year (2023) for want of coal. Suvas Chandra Pandey, Project Director of the power plant told in a press briefing held in his office room recently, its main fuel is the super quality coal which is not available in the sub-continent. So, its uninterrupted production is solely depending on the regular supply of coal imported from the countries out side of the sub-continent and the import of the coal is dependent on the availability of dollars and LC (Letter of Credits).
It is learnt from the Government source that for want of coal production of the Unit-1 of the power plant with the capacity of 660 megawatts electricity was suspended on January 14, 2023 for want of coal.
The import of the coal was hampered due to want of LC (Letters of Credits). It is learnt from the authorities concerned of the power plant that after long effort of request the government convinced to allow the power plant authorities to open the LC and consequently, 33 thousand metric tons coal was already imported for the power plant and a ship named MV. APJ Kais arrived at Mongla Port on Sunday morning from Indonesia carrying 55 metric tons coal for the power plant. The power plant authorities told, they have no sufficient quantity of foreign currencies for import the coal, the main fuel of the plant. The Project Director added, the Unit-1 can run up to the month of April, 2023 with the coal ready in hand. Some 4.5 thousand metric tons coal is required every day to run the Unit-1.