Manjurul Ahsan
More than 20 per cent of annual development programmes in power and energy sector may remain unimplemented due to budget cut in the revised ADP although the government gives the highest priority to the sector, officials said.
The Power Division assessed that the project implementing agencies would implement more than 80 per cent of the ADP even though till March they could implement only 66 per cent.
On the other hand, the Energy Division assessed that they would implement 71.40 per cent of the ADP which was around 70 per cent in nine months.
Officials of the implementing agencies of the major projects held ‘the budget cut in revised ADP and problems in fund disbursement’
responsible for limited achievement in project implementation in the government’s priority sectors.
Planning ministry officials said that the allocation for 54 projects under annual development programme in the power sector had been reduced to Tk 7,208 crore from the initial allocation of Tk 8,983.
They said that ADP had been cut short for maximum utilisation of limited resources.
Energy sector officials said that out of Tk 738.82 crore allocations for implementing 38 projects in the energy sector, only Tk 527.52 crore would be disbursed by June this year.
Power secretary Abul Kalam Azad told New Age that the ADP implementation was obstructed by fund crisis.
He said that they would utilise 100 per cent of the disbursed fund by June.
Out of 15 projects in the power sector which were planned to be implemented during the current fiscal, at least nine would not achieve the target due to budget cut in the revised ADP and slow progress of work by the contractors, power sector officials said.
The nine projects of the power sector are installation of two furnace oil run peackers with generation capacity of 50MW of electricity each at Shantahar in Bogra and Katakhali in Rajshahi, rehabilitation and modernisation of unit 1 and 2 of Ghorashal thermal power station and emergency rehabilitation expansion of urban areas and power distribution system under Rajshahi (Northern) zone of Power Development Board, construction of liquid fuel system for Sirajganj 150MW gas turbine power plant of North-West Power Generation Company, construction of new grid sub-stations and expansion (Phase 1) with the facilities of the grid of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh and four other projects for increasing electricity transmission and distribution capacity and for power saving by replacing incandescent bulbs by compact fluorescent lamps.
But power division officials expect that the concerned agencies would complete six projects—installation of a combined cycle power plant in Sylhet, emergency procurement of materials and equipment for renovation and augmentation of distribution lines and 11/0.4Kv substations for six districts under power board, rehabilitation and modernisation of three units of Ashuganj Power Station Company Limited, project for bringing one million consumers under Rural Electrification Board, sector assessment on power system efficiency improvement project and installation of two units of a peacker in Sirajganj having generation capacity of 120MW of electricity each.
A Power Division official said that they proposed a Tk 8,983 crore ADP for implementing the previous and new projects.
Budget cut in the revised ADP and constraints in disbursement of funds obstructed project implementation in the energy sector, Petrobangla officials said.
They said that despite 46.72 per cent fund disbursement in nine months for implementing 30 projects of Petrobangla subsidiaries, they injected their own funds and implemented 70 per cent of the ADP till March.