Bangla to float fresh tenders for Sylhet project

Dhaka: The Power Division has again sought approval for the lone bid of an Indian company to set up the 100-MW unit of the proposed 150-MW Sylhet power plant.

The division on Wednesday sent the proposal to the Cabinet Division for placing it before the purchase committee to award the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited the Tk 495 crore turnkey contract, officials said.

The council of advisers’ purchase committee, headed by finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, on January 6 sent back the proposal as it detected faults and ambiguity in the Power Development Board’s tender procedures.

The revised ‘development project proposal’ that
sought more allocation of fund for the plant has not been approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council, the adviser told reporters that day.

Power Division officials said though the PDB clarified the tender procedure, the revised DPP was yet to be approved by the ECNEC.
The Sylhet power plant project was approved by the ECNEC in 2001 with an estimated cost of Tk 342 including turnkey contract and other infrastructure costs.

BHEL was first selected in 2002 for setting up the plant at a cost of around Tk 225 crore under 50 per cent buyer’s credit term. As the then purchase committee approved BHEL’s offer in 2004, the project cost increased and the revised DPP was approved with an estimated cost of Tk 407 crore.
After the previous government rejected the BHEL’s offer, the PDB again invited tender in 2006 and BHEL became the only bidder with an offer of Tk 495 crore.

As the estimated project cost more than doubled in four years, the PDB is now waiting for the ECNEC’s nod for the revised DPP with an estimated cost of over Tk 700 crore.

The estimated cost of Sylhet power plant is much higher in comparison with the recently approved 150MW Shikalbaha power plant which was awarded to a Chinese company at a cost of Tk 574 crore, power officials pointed out.

They suggested that the ECNEC should wait for the decision of the purchase committee on the Sylhet power project. ‘If purchase committee does not approve the selection of BHEL, the project cost may further escalate because of soaring price of steel in the world market and we may have to modify the DPP again,’ said an official.

‘It is true that the bid is costly and there are questions about transparency. Any re-tender will take months and the next bid might be even costlier,’ another official commented.