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Dhaka Thursday,  Mar 28, 2024

Norway’s Fund’s Exclusion Has No Relation With Rampal: Nasrul

EB Desk

The  state minister for power, energy and mineral resource, Nasrul Hamid on Sunday  told parlaimetn that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund’s exclusion of Bharat Heavy Electricals from its investment portfolio has no relation with Rampal power plant.

Nasrul Hamid while replying a supplementary question of Jatiya Party MP Fakhrul Imam at the parliament on Sunday also said that Greenpeace concern about death of premature due to power plant is ‘wrong’.

‘Norway’s sovereign wealth fund’s exclusion of Bharat Heavy Electricals from its investment portfolio has no relation with Rampal power plant,’ Nasrul Hamid said.

Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company is working to implement Rampal power plant with fund from Exim Bank, it is not taking investment from Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, ’ he said.

Norway’s wealth fund has excluded Bharat Heavy Electricals from its investment portfolio because of concerns over the environmental impact of a plant the Indian company is building, the Norwegian central bank said on Friday.

BHEL, that is majority-owned by the government of India was excluded from the Norwegian fund’s portfolio because of ‘the risk of severe environmental damage’ resulting from the building of a coal-fired power plant close to the Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, in Bangladesh, the fund’s ethics watchdog said in a statement.

Nasrul Hamid rejected the Greenpeace coal and air pollution specialist Lauri Myllyvirta claims that Rampal power plant near at the Sunderbans could drastically worsen air pollution and cause approximately 6,000 premature deaths in its lifetime.

The state minister said there is no such possibility of causing such premature deaths due to Rampal power plant.

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