Smarting under power crisis for long, Bangladesh’s readymade garment sector can hope for better days following signing of two separate agreements to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity (largely from liquefied natural gas), recently.
The first deal was signed between Bangladesh’s Summit Group, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and US’s General Electric Company, while the other one was signed between Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and GE Switzerland.
As per the first deal signed between Summit, Mitsubishi and GE, the concerned parties reportedly agreed to invest US $ 3 billion to establish five power plants, two LNG terminals and one oil terminal.
In the other deal, BPDB and GE Switzerland agreed to set up a 3,600 MW LNG-based combined cycle power plant in Moheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar at an estimated cost of US $ 4.4 billion.
As per media reports, Senior Vice-President of the infrastructure business division of Mitsubishi Corporation Tetsuji Nakagawa, President and Chief Executive of GE Power Russell Stokes and Chairman of Summit Group Muhammed Aziz Khan represented their respective companies in the signing ceremony.
It may be mentioned here that Bangladesh’s total current installed electricity generation capacity is around 16,000 MW while the demand for electricity is projected to reach 34,000 MW by 2030.
Under the given circumstances, many garment manufacturing units are reportedly languishing due to lack of sufficient power supply.
