Japan provides $1500m to implement Matarbari power plant
UNB :
The physical progress of the Matarbari coal-fired power plant has reached 78.30 percent, while financial progress is 65.14 percent till August 2023. Japan is providing $1500 million more for the project.
To this effect exchange of notes and ‘loan agreement’ for the 7th tranche of the Matarbari Ultra supercritical coal-fired power project under the 44th Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan package (2nd batch) was signed on Saturday ( September 30) between Bangladesh and Japan.
Sharifa Khan, secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD), Ministry of Finance signed the ‘Exchange of Notes’ and the ‘Loan Agreement’ on behalf of Bangladesh.
Iwama Kiminori, the Ambassador of Japan in Bangladesh has signed the ‘Exchange of Notes’ and Ichiguchi Tomohide, Chief Representative, JICA Bangladesh Office, Dhaka signed the ‘Loan Agreement’ on behalf of Japan.
The signing ceremony was held at the NEC-2 Conference Room of ERD, Sher-E-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka.
Under this Japanese ODA loan, Japan government will provide 217,556 million Japanese Yen (JPY) or approximately $1,500 million for the project. The rate of interest of this loan will be 1.6 percent for construction, 0.10 percent for consultancy services, a front-end fee (at a time) of 0.2 percent, and a repayment period of 30 years which includes a 10-year grace period.
This project is being implemented to meet growing electricity demand and to improve stable power supply by installing 1200 MW (600MWx2 units) Ultra Super Critical Coal-fired Power Plant at Matarbari, Maheshkhali Upazila of Cox’s Bazar district.
The total cost of the project is Tk51,854.88 Crore of which GOB provides Tk6,406.16 crore, JICA Tk43,921.03 crore, and CPGCBL Tk1,527.69 crore.
The project implementation period is from July 2014 to December 2026.
Japan is the single largest bilateral development partner of Bangladesh. Japan has been providing continuous support for the socio-economic development of Bangladesh since its independence.
The ODA commitment has exceeded USD $30.34 billion till now.
Japanese loans and grants are being utilized in a wide range of areas including power, roads, bridges, telecommunication, agriculture, health, education, water supply and sanitation, rural development, environment, human resource development etc.
The Japanese assistance contributed significantly to the overall development of the country.
