Staff Reporter
The Executive Commit-tee of the National Eco-nomic Council (ECNEC) yesterday approved 13 projects involving total cost of Tk 16,207.55 crore, including a project to construct a 442-MW peak solar power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat.
Of the total project cost, Tk 10,600.80 crore will come from government funds, Tk 4,081.85 crore from project loans and Tk 1,524.91 crore from concerned agencies’ own funds.
The approval done at the 5th meeting of the ECNEC held at Bangla-desh Secretariat with Prime Minister and ECNEC Chairman Tarique Rahman in the chair.
Of the approved 13 pro-jects, 10 are new, two are revised and one involves extension of its imple-mentation period.
State Minister for Plan-ning Zonayed Abdur Rahim Saki briefed re-porters after the meeting at the NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.
Under the Tk 2,498.08-crore Rampal project, a 442-megawatt peak (MWp) solar power plant will be constructed at Rampal in Bagerhat, aimed at increasing re-newable energy genera-tion, diversifying the country’s primary fuel sources and reducing carbon emissions.
The Rampal 442 MWp Solar Power Plant Con-struction Project was proposed by the Power Division and will be im-plemented by the Bang-ladesh Power Develop-ment Board (BPDB). The project will be financed by BPDB from its own with Tk 374.71 crore and from Power Sector De-velopment Fund Tk 2,123.37 crore.
The Power Sector De-velopment Fund loan would carry a 2 percent interest rate, with a one-year grace period and a 16-year repayment peri-od.
The Planning Commis-sion recommended that the project be imple-mented from September 2026 to March 2029.
In its assessment, the Planning Commission said the project would increase renewable-energy-based electricity generation and contrib-ute to the government’s target of raising renewa-ble energy’s share of the total energy mix to 20 percent by 2030.
Once the project is im-plemented, it would add 442 MW of electricity to the national grid. Cur-rently the solar power generation in the country is 797 MW out of the total ongrid power gen-eration capacity of 28,827 MW.
“The project will in-crease electricity genera-tion based on renewable energy, which will help achieve the target of gen-erating 20 percent of electricity from renewa-ble sources by 2030,” said the Planning Com-mission official.
The Planning Commis-sion said the project would strengthen energy security by diversifying primary fuel sources and reduce carbon emissions.
The proposed plant will be built on 918.50 acres of land in Block-B of Rampal that BPDB had already acquired. The Planning Commission said the use of BPDB-owned land would elim-inate the need for fresh land acquisition and re-duce project costs.
Electricity generated by the solar plant will be transmitted through the existing transmission infrastructure associated with the nearby Rampal coal-fired power plant. The project summary said this would allow the plant to be implemented relatively quickly and at lower cost.
BPDB acquired a total of 1,834 acres in Rampal in 2012 for development of a coal-fired power plant. The land was divided into Block-A, covering 915.50 acres, and Block-B covering 918.50 acres.
Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Com-pany (Pvt) Ltd’s Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant was built in Block-A, while Block-B re-mains under BPDB.
Land development and boundary-wall construc-tion have already been completed in Block-B, according to the project document.
The proposed solar plant will use solar photovol-taic modules with a min-imum capacity of 640 watts peak. The project will also install grid-tied inverters with a cumula-tive capacity of 360 MW, a pooling substa-tion, a three-kilometre double-circuit 230-kV transmission line and three 230-kV bays, in-cluding one spare bay.
The largest component of the project cost, Tk 1,238.61 crore, or around 50 percent, will go to solar photovoltaic modules and mounting structures.
Electrical equipment, including inverters, transformers and SCADA systems will cost Tk 732.25 crore.
The project summary said a feasibility study was conducted by the Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Company (IIFC) and found the project acceptable.
The project was included in the Annual Develop-ment Program (ADP) for fiscal 2026-27 as an un-approved “green page” project.
The project is also aligned with the Five Year Strategic Frame-work for Reform and Development and the Sustainable Develop-ment Goal 7, which seeks to ensure access to af-fordable, reliable, sus-tainable and modern en-ergy for all.
The day’s meeting also approved seven projects under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Coop-eratives.
The projects are – im-proving road infrastruc-ture and drainage in 18 wards under five newly incorporated regions of Dhaka South City Cor-poration; upgrading im-portant infrastructure in Rangpur City Corpora-tion; rehabilitating dam-aged roads in Rangpur City Corporation, and constructing roads, drains and footpaths in zones one to eight of Gazipur City Corpora-tion.
The other projects under the ministry include a project for women’s skills development and entrepreneurship creation through cooperatives; rural infrastructure de-velopment in Sirajganj, Bogura and Naogaon districts; and the Im-portant Urban Infrastruc-ture Development Pro-ject (2nd phase), which was approved in its sec-ond revised form.
The ECNEC also ap-proved the third revised project for procuring 35 commercial and eight auxiliary vessels for Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) and construct-ing two new slipways under the Ministry of Shipping.
Under the Ministry of Railways, the committee approved the Railway Capacity Expansion Pro-ject for procuring 30 me-tre-gauge diesel-electric locomotives for Bangla-desh Railway.
It also approved a project under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to reno-vate and modernise the purchased chancery building in Paris, France, to make it suitable for use.
Two projects under the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges also received approval. One involves construct-ing the Second Karatoya Bridge at the 15th kilo-metre of the Bhajanpur (Nijbari)-Atorkhari-Mainaguri-Amtali-Mirgachh-Panchagarh (Z-5060) road.
The other is the second revised Thanchi-Rimakri-Madak-Likri Road Construction Pro-ject.
Meanwhile, the ECNEC meeting was informed about a project costing less than Tk 50 crore that had already received ap-proval from the Planning Minister.
The project involves re-excavating the Nandahar and Harabati rivers and Nunogola and Kharowa canals in Joypurhat dis-trict.
Ministers and State Min-isters concerned attended the meeting while Plan-ning Commission mem-bers and secretaries con-cerned were present.
