TDS Desk:

Power generation has been suspended for three days at the two units of the Matarbari 1,200MW coal-fired plant in Moheshkhali upazila of Cox’s Bazar due to a coal shortage.

The plant went offline on Thursday (31 October), confirmed Muhammad Monowar Hossain Mojumder, the superintendent engineer (operation) at Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (CPGCBL), to the journalists on Saturday (2 November).

He said they bring coal through Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation for power generation through the plant’s units. The contract for 2,205,000 tonnes of coal with the Japanese company ended back in August after it delivered the last consignment as per the contract.

That stock of coal has been completely exhausted and as a result, power generation stopped on Thursday, said Monowar.

Photo: Collected

One of the plant’s two 600MW units began production in July 2023 and the other in December same year. One unit requires around 6,500 to 7,000 tonnes of coal daily.

CPGCBL was supposed to buy coal through tender before Sumitomo finished supplying coal in August.

Monowar said Abul Kalam Azad, the now former project director, delayed the process to invite international tenders for a three-year coal supply deal by 10 months to provide illegal benefits to a particular company.

Later, in response to a petition from another contracting company alleging these irregularities, the High Court in July imposed a six-month ban on coal imports. Although the Supreme Court later stayed this ban order, long-term coal import has been facing uncertainty since then.

However, efforts are underway to import coal by the end of November after completing all the necessary procedures. Once the coal arrives, power generation will resume, said Monowar.

The Matarbari 2×600 MW Ultra Super Critical Coal Fired Power Plant is built on 1,414 acres of land in Matarbari and Dhalghata unions of Cox’s Bazar district.

The total project cost is Tk51,854.88 crore, of which, Tk6,406.16 crore came from the Bangladesh government, Tk43,921.03 crore from Japan International Cooperation Agency, and Tk1,527.69 crore from CPGCBL.

After the ouster of the Awami League government on 5 August, many allegations of corruption involving the construction costs and other aspects of the plant have surfaced.

On the other hand, theft of valuable objects including cables from the project site is now happening very often, according to media reports.

On 31 August, the Bangladesh Navy seized four containers of electric cables worth Tk15 crore while they were being smuggled in a barge. A case was filed at Moheshkhali Police Station against Abul Kalam Azad and some security officers over the incident.