Trial production at first unit begins tomorrow

The unit was shut down for technical glitches on January last.

The second unit has been contributing 125MW power to national grid since February last, power plant sources said.

Power Development Board officials hope that the second unit would go into full production within this or early next month.

Due to technical glitches, the first unit of Chinese built Barapukuria power plant remains inoperative since November last.

It went out of operation soon after its trial run in January last.

When contacted, acting project director of the plant Md Shamsur Rahman said he expects the first unit will go into commercial operation on scheduled time.

Initially, the plant was scheduled to start power generation in 1998. But due to poor progress of the project, the power plant was also delayed.

The first unit started trial run in November, but the experts detected technical glitches and shut down the plant for necessary repairs.

On February 8, State Minister for Power Iqbal Hasan Mahmud visited the plant and ordered the Chinese builder CMC to start commercial operation of both the units by April.

The CMC is relying on three experts of the UCC, an American company specialised in ash management in a coal mine.

The plant is being set up under a supplier's credit of more than $250 million.

Official sources said 65 percent of the coal to be produced from Barapukuria coal mine will be consumed by the power plant and the remaining 35 percent will be used for brick-fields and other domestic purposes.

The CMC Consortium is yet to complete the development work that started in 1994.

Sources said it might take four more years to start full operation of Tk1600 crore coal mining project.