The coal power plant in Matarbari and the deep seaport at Maheshkhali are almost finished, but the roads around them are still in a state of disarray.
The Department of Road Transport and Highways (RHD) has requested an extension until 2024 for the construction of the connection road to the 1,200 megawatt Matarbari coal power plant.
By providing a ground link, the 44-kilometer road was supposed to simplify building work at the plant, which is located on the remote island of Matarbari in Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar.
If the road can be completed by June 2020, as planned, after construction began in July 2015, the power plant’s workers and engineers will be able to travel freely, and the necessary equipment will be delivered by road.
The river, according to Abul Kalam Azad, director of the Matarbari Power Station, is now the sole reliable mode of transportation for the power project’s workers and engineers.
The period was extended in one phase when the RHD first failed to meet the aim. Now, the RHD is asking the Planning Commission for a fourth extension, pushing the project’s completion date back four years. The implementing agency, Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited, hopes to complete unit testing by 2024, with the plant’s construction expected to begin in 2026 with the help of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The Planning Commission has already taken a positive decision in this regard by convening a meeting of the Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) in this regard. Pending the approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), the five-year project will be completed in nine years.
Of the total Tk17,777cr, the RHD received an allocation of Tk8,821cr for the Matarbari Deep Sea Port Development Project.
Of this, Tk2,892 crore was to be spent on the construction of a 21km road and Tk 2,146 crore on bridge construction.
Work for the road section, approved in March 2020, has not even begun yet. The financial progress of the project stands at only 1.16%.
