NTPC Bangladesh venture to be operational by FY18

NTPC CMD AR Choudhury

IN YET another feather to its glorious cap, state-owned power major NTPC will make its presence felt in neighbouring Bangladesh very soon as the $1.2-billion Indo-Bangla power joint venture is planning to award the contract for construction...
of the plant by April 2015 and expected to start commercial generation by the financial year 2018.
NTPC chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury disclosed this. He said: "We expect to award the contract next year. The company has recently appointed Fichtner Consulting Engineers and is in the process of finalising a consultant who will help in sourcing coal for the project," .
The plant will consume around eight million tonnes of coal per year and the entire generation will be based on coal imported into Bangladesh.
Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Ltd is a 50:50 joint venture between Bangladesh Power Development Board and NTPC.
The first project of this venture is the 1,320 MW Maitree Project at Rampal in Bagerhat district.
At the ninth board meeting of the company, held in Kolkata for the first time with Bangladeshi power secretary last week, a few pending issues were ironed out before the tenders are invited for setting up the plant.
The land has been provided by Bangaldesh government and NTPC will set up two 660 MW units at the location. NTPC's expertise will also be used in running the plant.
At present, Bangladesh faces a total demand of about 7,500 mw. A total 500 mw is sourced from India of which 250 MW is from NTPC.
With an installed power generation capacity of 43,128 megawatts (MW), NTPC plans to add 14,038 MW during the 12th Plan period (2012-17). It has set itself the target of becoming a 128,000MW power producer by 2032.
NTPC added 1,835 MW to its portfolio last fiscal and plans to add 2,023 MW in 2014-15 and the Maharatna PSU has cash reserves of Rs.16,867.7 crore as on 31 March this year.