About $24 billion investment in Bangladesh’s power sector is in the pipeline, the prime minister’s energy affairs advisor Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury has said.At a seminar in Dhaka on Tuesday, he said the government planned to make Bangladesh a middle-income country within the next five years.
“$2 billion was invested in the power projects completed in the past five years. Another $8.5 billion have been invested in those currently being implemented,” Chowdhury said.
“Another $24 billion will be invested in projects that are in pipeline,” he added.
State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid said half the amount would come from foreign investment.
Chowdhury said the government had doubled the power production in the past five years.
Dhaka University Prof Subrata Kumar Aditya said Bangladesh’s 27 power stations generated 4,942 MW in 2009. By 2014, the number of power plants went up to 94 and generation rocketed to 10,648 MW.
He hoped the capacity would increase further by another 11,000 MW by 2019.
In the same period, percentage of consumers has increased to 64 percent from 47 percent and Aditya hoped the figure would go up to 90 percent within five years.
The per capita power consumption has gone up to 348 units from 228 units while the system loss came down to 12 percent from 16 percent, he noted.
Gas production has been increased by 600 mmcf over the past five years, Aditya added.
State Minister for Power Hamid said a power hub would be set up at Maheshkhali which would produce 10,000 MW.