The Bangladesh Railway, Power Development Board and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation on Sunday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure uninterrupted supply of heavy equipment and fuel to 17 new power plants.
Under the agreement, BR will transport diesel and furnace oil to the new power plants, in both the public and private sectors, which have a total capacity of 1,575 megawatts. The contract will expire after 10 years.
The deal was finalised a week after the state-owned BR signed a $16.5 million deal with the Indian company, Texmaco, to buy 165 broad-gauge oil tank wagons and six brake vans.
BPC's chairman Muktadir Ali, PDB's chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir and BR's director general Mohammad Abu Taher signed the deal on behalf of their organisations.
Communications minister Abul Hossain, who was present at the signing ceremony, said that the railway at present has the capacity of transporting only 40,000 tonnes of fuel oil per year, which needs to be increased to 1,12,000 tonnes for ensuring adequate fuel supply to the new power plants.
Under the agreement a joint monitoring committee, comprised of the officials of BR, PDB and BPC, will oversee the whole operation.
The BR will collect the necessary number of locomotives, flat-bed carriers and tank wagons to transport heavy equipment for setting up the new power plants and supplying fuel oil to them.
The BPC will import diesel and furnace oil, and its marketing companies — Padma, Meghna and Jamuna — will use their facilities in Khulna and Chittagong to ensure storage and loading of the fuels.
An official of the BR said that the new tank wagons and brake vans would be available by early next year as Texmaco has said that it can supply them within a year.
At present, the BR transports fuel oil to power plants from its 20 depots on 10 goods trains, each of which has 24 wagons.
According to PDB, three existing power plants with a total capacity of 85MW will need to be supplied 56,000 tonnes of diesel by rail from June to December this year.
Another 77,100 tonnes of diesel and furnace oil are to be transported to four power plants with a total capacity of 122MW using river routes during the same period.
Source : New Age
