The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The Power Cell is likely to complete within next week the pre-qualification assessment of the bidders vying for the proposed 450-MW Bibiyana Power Plant project, a vital scheme for the electricity-scant country.

Earlier, the Power Ministry has initiated three large-scale IPP projects-450MW Sirajganj plant, 450MW Meghnaghat phase-III plant and the 450MW Bibiyana.

But, a Power Ministry source said, one of them, the Bibiyana project, is getting utmost priority, as natural gas is available nearby for the plant. Responding to the tender invited by the Power Cell of the Power Ministry, a total of six international and local firms submitted the pre-qualification bids on November 8 for the project.

The aspirants are Korea Electric Power Corporation of South Korea, AES Corporation, GE Energy, and Chevron Corporation of the United States, the consortium of the Summit Industrial Mercantile Corporation Limited of Bangladesh, the consortium of Powertek Berhad and the YTL Power International Berhad of Malaysia, and Siemens Project Ventures GmbH of Germany.

A seven-member tender-evaluation committee, headed by Power Cell director general Abdul Jalil, is evaluating the applications from the companies.

On completion of the pre-qualification assessment, the qualified bidders will be invited to submit their final financial and technical offers under Request for Proposal (RfP) format.

As per the bidding proposal, winning private sponsor will have to implement the Bibiyana Power Plant project on Build-Own-Operate (BOO) basis as independent power producer (IPP) in accordance with the Private Sector Power Generation Policy 2004.

The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will purchase electricity from the plant for about 22 years.

A site near the Bibiyana gas field in Habiganj has been fixed as location for the power plant. Bibiyana Field has abundant surplus natural gas, which, for lack of infrastructure, will remain unutilized, industry-insiders believe.

On the other hand, the two other projects-Sirajganj and Meghnaghat-III-are still in uncertainty about getting available gas supply.

Despite that, a power Ministry source said, the Power Cell will receive PQ bids until December while PQ bids for Sirajganj project will be invited next year.

Bibiyana is the first large-scale power project for which the caretaker government initiated the physical move to implement project to resolve a nagging power crisis.

The World Bank has made a commitment to finance the project while its private-sector window-the International Finance Corporation (IFC)--has been working as an advisor to assist the Power Cell to deal with the tender process.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has promised to finance the private sponsor to install the Sirajganj and Meghnaghat-III plants.

Industry-insiders said such big projects need more than three years time for implementation after tendering. "Even if the projects are given special care, those are unlikely to come into operation before 2010," said an executive of a private power company.