No hasty decision on coal policy
ET Report

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that her government would not take any hasty decision regarding coal policy. "We will not take any decision whimsically, we will examine pros and cons of any proposal before implementing it," she said at the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) meeting at the PM's Office.
The PM who chaired the meeting said that there is plenty of coal in Bangladesh. "But, the scenario of the country is different from that of other countries," she said. The premier informed that her government sent a team to Germany to observe the coal extraction systems. She said the open pit coal mining in Germany was viable as the country has vast lands and the coalmines situated at places where there is no dense population like Bangladesh. "We have to think about the people of the area and loss of lands before going for extracting coal from the mine," she told the meeting. The government would not take any decision that might harm the interest of the people and inflict sufferings to them, she said. After extracting the coal from the mine, it must be worked out how the vacated mine would be filled up, she added. "So, we will not take any decision in a hurried manner and this is not possible for us as we are a pro-people government," she said.
On the power situation, the PM said the power situation remains the same when her government took the office previously in 1996. "We are all working hard to mitigate the power deficit and I firmly believe we will solve the problem," she said.The concerned ministers and officials are active to get rid of the present power crisis, she added. "All are working tirelessly day and night to bring comfort for the people and welfare of the country," she informed. Hasina reiterated that the present power crisis was created by the previous BNP-Jamaat alliance government and they are the solely responsible for the public misery. Hasina directed the concerned officials to install solar power at all research institutes for uninterrupted power supple whatever be the cost. "The researchers need uninterrupted power supply when they are engaged in research works," she said.
Recently The government has decided to set up a mega coal-fired power plant worth over US$1.0 billion by independent power producer (IPP) to generate 1,350 megawatt (mw) of electricity in port city Chittagong, "We will build the coal-fired power plant under an IPP project to initiate electricity generation from the plant as soon as possible," Prime Minister's Adviser on energy issues Tawfiq-w-Elahi Chowdhury said. He said the coal-fired IPP project, which would be the first of its kind in the country, would be put on offer before the private sector.
Officials said the coal-fired power plant might initially be run by imported coal but later it would use local coal when coal extraction in local mines would begin.The power ministry has moved for the mega power plant following repeated demands from the businessmen of the energy-starved port city.