Saturday, December 4, 2010

Gunpowder seized in Khulna, 2 arrested

Police arrested two youths and recovered 200 grams of gunpowder from their possession on Monday at Patherbazar checkpost under Khanjahan Ali police station of the city.

The arrestees were identified as Md Zakir Sheikh,20, son of Jinnat Sheikh of Khairtala under Jessore Sadar police station and Ripon Hossain,22, son of Shahadat Hossain of Shatmayeel area under the same police station.

Being tipped off, Sub Inspector Shawkat Hossain and Havildar Abdul Hakim recovered the gunpowder packed in a polythene bag from the two youths. They were bound for Khulna city from Kushtia in a passenger bus of Gorai Paribahan Service.

OC Md Altaf Hossain of Khanjahan Ali police station said that at least 40 powerful bombs could be made by 200 grams of gunpowder seized from the arrestees.

Assistant Police Commissioner in-charge of north zone of KMP Mohammad Ali Haider said that the youths were carrying the gunpowder for supplying it to a group of extremists hiding in Khulna city.

Two extremists were waiting at a point of Kashipur New Road under Khalishpur police station to receive the packet of gunpowder, Ali Haider said.

He further said that the gunpowder was being brought to Khulna to create chaos and disturbance.

The arrestees told police that they did not know the names of the two extremists who were supposed to receive the gunpowder from them.

A case under Sections 5 and 6 of the Explosive Substances Act has been recorded with Khanjahan Ali police station, said OC Altaf Hossain.

Kuet BCL chief, 2 others die of liquor poisoning

Three people, including the president of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (Kuet) unit, died and 20 others fell sick after taking spurious liquor at Bhagjote area under Daulatpur upazila of Kushtia on Sunday night.

The dead are AKM Ahsan Ullah Mehedi, 24, president of BCL Kuet unit, Mohon Sarder, 24, a BCL activist, and Ujjal Hossain, 45, of Gaznabipur village in Sadar upazila of Kushtia.

Mohon and Ujjal died on Sunday night while Mehedi early yesterday.

Kuet BCL president Mehedi along with Mohon Sakil and Imran came to Madapur village in Daulatpur upazila on Sunday to attend a marriage ceremony of their friend Atiqur Rahman, report our Khulna and Kushtia correspondents.

After attending the wedding ceremony, they consumed liquor at a place in Bhagjote char area in Daulatpur upazila on Sunday night and returned to Purbasha residential Hotel at Beramara upazila.

Mehedi, Mohon, Sakil and Imran fell sick at the hotel. As they were found lying unconscious in their room, hotel staff took them to Bheramara Health Complex where the doctors declared Mohon dead.

Later, Mehedi, Imran and Sakil were shifted to Kushtia Sadar Hospital for better treatment. As Mehedi's condition deteriorated, he was referred to Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital where he died at 1:00pm yesterday.

Sakil and Imran were brought to Khulna Medical College and Hospital by their relatives on Monday night.

Ujjal was one of the 20 other people who also fell sick after drinking toxic liquor at the same place. He died at Kushtia Sadar Hospital on Sunday night. The rest are undergoing treatment at different hospitals and clinics in Kushtia.

Kuet Vice Chancellor prof Muhammod Alamgir and all teachers, officials and employees of the university have expressed deep shock at the death of BCL leader Mehedi, also a final year student of civil engineering department.

Khulna AL activities suspended

The ruling Awami League has suspended the activities of its Khulna district unit until June 26 fearing outbursts of internal feud ahead of its extended meeting next Saturday.

Central AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif directed Khulna district AL President Sheikh Harun-or-Rashid to keep the party activities suspend following the insult of a senior district leader by Rupsha unit AL leaders.

"Some untoward incidents are happening among the rank and file of Khulna Awami League and for this I have asked the Khulna district president to keep party activities suspended until the extended meeting is held," Hanif told The Daily Star last night.

He said the decision has been made so that no untoward incident takes place before the extended meeting.

"We will resolve the existing problem at the extended meeting," he said.

India seeks to fund, manage coal power

BNP's Khulna road march Nov 26

Friday, November 11, 2011

After more than a month's break, BNP led four-party alliance will go for the next road march towards Khulna on November 26 to press home the demand of holding the next general elections under the non-party caretaker government. A senior leader of Khulna city unit BNP told UNB that the date of Dhaka-Khulna road march has been fixed to November 26-27. BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will lead the caravan from the capital. Earlier, the opposition leader led Dhaka-Sylhet road march from October 10 to 11 and Dhaka-Rajshahi road march from October 18 to 19 to realise her demand for restoration of caretaker government system for holding parliamentary elections. The caravan will pass through Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge and will cover Pabna, Kushtia, Chuadanga, Jhenaidah and Jessore districts on its way to Khulna. The opposition leader will stay overnight either in Jessore or Khulna on November 26, according to party sources. She will address a public meeting at Khulna Circuit House Maidan on the following day.

Donors pledge $9m for Aila rebuilding

The donor consortium led by UN Development Fund (UNDP) yesterday assured the government of providing $9 million to assist nearly 70,000 worst affected Aila victims in Khulna and Satkhira.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also shown keen interest in repairing six severely damaged embankments located in four unions of Shyamnagar and Ashahshuni upazila of Satkhira district and Dacop and Koira in Khulna district, Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzak told journalists after a meeting with donor representatives at his ministry yesterday afternoon.

Dr Razzak, who was the most vocal minister to repair all the 47 points of damaged embanks in the cyclone Aila affected areas, said the government has so far spent Tk 100 crore for the relief activities in the area and Tk 96 crore were in the pipeline to help 48,000 families to build their homes anew.

"Each of the families would get Taka 20,000 to build houses," said the minister adding that the supports from donors and ADB would be an addition to the government's ongoing programmes that include 20-kg rice for each family per month.

The minister said decisions have been made to instruct the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), prime agency to build embankments in affected areas.

He bitterly criticised the BWDB for failure to repair protection dikes on time and all the remaining six damaged embankments by March 2011.

He said tenders should be floated by July this year so that the repair work can be started by September and embankments are repaired by March next year.

Razzak said the entire work on Aila rehabilitation programme could not be done in last 15 months due to lack of coordination and secured funding both from internal and external sources.

He, however, expressed the hope that the plight of the cyclone-affected people would go before next monsoon due in April 2011.

A total of 190 people died and at least half a million people were rendered homeless after cyclone Aila hit 64 upazilas in Bangladesh coats and parts of India on May 25, 2009. Supply of safe drinking water and repair of embankments were the key demands from the affected people in Bangladesh.

MoU with India today on coal fired power plant in Khulna

Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian National Thermal Power Company (NTPC) today for cooperation in the power sector between the two countries and to set up a 1,320 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Khulna.

A competent source of the PDB told The Daily Star that a four-member Bangladesh team led by PDB Chairman Alamgir Kabir is now on a visit to Delhi to sign the deal that came as a follow up of several initial agreements reached during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India back in January.

Under the MoU between the two national companies, the large coal fired power plant will be set up under equal partnership. A joint venture agreement for the coal plant will be signed later and a board will be formed comprising equal members from both the countries. The chairman and the managing director's position will be periodically rotated between the two nations to maintain equality.

The MoU also outlines the fundamental areas of power sector cooperation. These includes NTPC's assistance in developing human resources in Bangladeshi power sector, improvement of efficiency and the scope to go for more joint ventures by the two state companies in power projects in both India and Bangladesh in the future.

“Such future ventures could mean joint ventures in hydro power or renewables,” said a top PDB official.

The MoU will be signed this morning in presence of the Bangladesh high commissioner and counselor, Indian foreign secretary and high officials of NTPC.

Sources said that India earlier had some reservations on Bangladesh's proposals in the draft MoU. In May, India had sent Bangladesh a draft agreement outlining that the NTPC would manage and finance the two-unit coal-based plant in Khulna that would be jointly built with the PDB. Under this joint venture, the board of directors will be headed by Bangladesh. The number of NTPC representatives will be higher than those of Bangladesh by one.

In June, a high-powered committee headed by adviser to prime minister on economic affairs Dr Mashiur Rahman reviewed the Indian proposal and decided to suggest that the Bangladeshi share in this plant should increase gradually.

As part of cooperation between the two countries, the NTPC is already conducting a feasibility study for the coal-fired plant while the PDB has acquired land in Khulna and Chittagong to build a couple of large imported coal-based power projects.

The PDB is already acquiring 1,800 acres opposite to the Chalna port in Khulna for the joint venture with India.

It is planned that the Khulna plant would use high-quality coal imported through the sea from countries like Indonesia or Australia. The government is not considering import of Indian coal as it is generally low in quality and comparatively more environmentally harmful.

2 power plants deal signed with Delhi Joint initiatives in Ctg, Khulna eye 1,320MW electricity from coal; the 2 nat'l companies may venture into power deals in both countries

Two national companies of Bangladesh and India yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up two coal-fired power plants of 1,320 megawatts each in Chittagong and Khulna under a joint venture.

The MoU also seeks the two companies' cooperation with each other in development of renewable energy.

This cooperation deal would allow Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India to go for joint ventures in other power projects in both the countries in the future. Such projects could encompass joint ventures in hydropower or renewable energy sector, said Indian power ministry officials.

This MoU is preceded by a power exchange agreement signed between the two countries in July under which Bangladesh would import 250MW power within two years -- with the provision to export power to India in the future.

BPDB Chief Engineer (generation) Abul Kashem signed the deal on behalf of Bangladesh with the NTPC at the latter's office in the morning. Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Tariq A Karim and Indian Power Secretary P Umashankar were present on the occasion.

Under the MoU, an eight-member board of directors will manage the joint venture with Bangladesh as its chairman and an NTPC representative as the managing director for the first eight years before switching over to three-year rotational system.

The two countries will by rotation hold the posts of chairman and managing director for a period of three years, said the MoU.

Bangladesh and India will have an equal number of nominees -- four each -- in the board.

The two power plants, to be set up at a cost of Rs 13,200 crore (2.78 billion US dollars) with 50:50 equity, are likely to be operated by India.

The agreement also envisages Indian assistance to Bangladesh in power generation and transmission, energy efficiency as well as in development of renewable energy, consultancy services, research and development of human resources in power sector and enhancement of productivity.

The MoU is the culmination of the decision on cooperation in power sector taken during Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's India visit in January this year.

The power sector cooperation was high on Hasina's talks with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh and the Joint Delhi Declaration issued at the end of the visit.

The MoU does not mention where high-quality coal for the proposed power plant in Khulna will be sourced but it is planned that the project would use coal imported through the sea from countries like Indonesia or Australia which have very little ash content and poses much less damage to the ecology.

To set up the coal fired power plants, the BPDB is acquiring 1,200 acres of land near the Chittagong coast beside the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd (CUFL) and 1,800 acres in Khulna, opposite to the Chalna port.

NTPC, India's largest power generator, is already in talks to acquire coal mines or coal blocs in Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and Mozambique as part of its efforts to augment its capacity by 22,430MW in the next few years.

The BPDB's four-member delegation, which reached the Indian capital last week, visited some NTPC power plants in the last three days, before signing the MoU. Later yesterday, it flew back to Dhaka.
 

3-day digital fair from tomorrow

A three-day Digital Innovation Fair-2010 will begin at Sonadanga Public Hall Auditorium here tomorrow. Jointly organised by the office of Khulna Divisional Commissioner and Access to Information (A to I) Project of Prime Minister's Office, the fair will have a total of 32 stalls of both government and private institutions, said Khulna Divisional Commissioner Md Mashiur Rahman. It has been aimed at materialising the dream of digital Bangladesh to enable the country meet global challenges and develop human resources, he said. State Minister for Science and Information Technology Yafes Osman will formally inaugurate the fair as chief guest at 10:30 am. The fair will remain open to all from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm everyday. Access to Information Technology project and office of Khulna Divisional Commissioner will hold two seminars separately. Eminent IT experts Mostafa Jabbar and Munir Hasan will present two keynote papers at the seminars.

12 sued on charge of war crimes in Khulna

Four alleged rajakars and eight unidentified others have been sued on charge of committing murders during Liberation War in 1971.

Mohammad Anowar Akand of Uttar Rajapur village under Sharankhola upazila of Bagerhat filed the petition case against 12 people on Tuesday afternoon with the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bagerhat Md. Rakhibul Islam.

The court ordered the OC of Sharankhola police station to record allegation of the complainant as a regular case and take legal action after proper investigation.

The four identified as rajakars and accused are Nazir Ahmed Howlader, Saleh Ahmad Gazi, Sultan Khan and Abdul Aziz Talukder.

The complainant stated in his allegation that the accused had kidnapped his father Abul Hashem Akand and elder brother Abdul Huq Akand at gun point on the night of November 25 in 1971 with the victims' eyes and hands tied up.

The accused gunned down my father and elder brother after physical torture in the early morning of November 26 on the bank of Passur river at Banishanta village under Mongla upazila of Bagerhat district, reads the complaint.

They killed my father and elder brother as they actively helped freedom fighters during liberation war in 1971, the complainant further said in his petition.

OC Azizul Huq said that he would record the case soon after receiving the petition from the court.

36 houses gutted in Khulna, hostel rooms in Barisal

Four rooms of Debendranath Ghosh Student Hostel adjacent to city's BM College were gutted in a fire on Friday evening.

Fire service sources said the fire originated from an electric short circuit at a room of the hostel and soon engulfed three other rooms at about 5:20pm while none was inside the room.

On information, fire fighters rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze with the help of local people.

Some 14 students of BM College were residing in those four rooms of the hostel located in Natun Bazaar area.

The belongings of the all 14 resident students of the hostel including, clothes, books, academic papers and documents were gutted in the fire.

In Khulna, a devastating fire gutted 36 dwelling houses and valuables at the workers colony of an auto-rice mill in Labanchara area of the city Friday afternoon.

City's Tutpara Fire Station officer Ariful Haque said the fire originated from the kitchen room of a worker and soon engulfed the other houses of the colony of rice mill of Kazi Sobhan Hossain at about 1:30pm.

Three fire fighting units from Tutpara Fire Station rushed to the spot and doused the fire with the help of local people.

Ariful Haque said some 33 houses of the colony and three neighboring area houses were gutted by the fire.

He said two workers sustained burn injuries while trying to put out the blaze. The extent of loss from the fire was estimated at Tk 12 lakh.

Local MP and BNP city unit president Nazrul Islam Manju visited the spot and distributed food and clothes among the fire victims.

Royal Bengal Tiger beaten to death

Villagers beat a Bengal Tiger dead at Koira upazila of Khulna on Friday.

According to Shahidul Huq, station officer of Kashiabad Forest Office of Sundarbans Forest Division's west wing, the tigress strayed into locality around 7:30pm on September 9 and stayed near a hatchery.

Around 8:30am the next morning more than 100 villagers, armed with sticks, blockaded the hatchery and beat the tigress to death.

Veterinary surgeon Arun Kanti Mandol of Khulna in the autopsy report said the tigress was sick.

The carcass was buried in the compound of Hadda Forest Camp.

A two-member committee was formed to probe the incident, said Divisional Forest Officer Md Ziauddin, adding that the committee is expected to submit its report by Thursday.

According to experts, human-tiger encounters have increased in recent years as tiger habitat has diminished due to natural disasters like Sidr and Aila, large-scale deforestation, human infringement of tiger territory and poaching.
 

Bangladesh-India Joint Venture Final agreement for Khulna plant in Oct

The joint venture between two state-owned power companies of Bangladesh and India to set up Bangladesh's largest coal-fired power plant is likely to be signed within the next three or four weeks, a top official of the Power Development Board said.

This would allow the two countries to jointly float a tender and complete the tender process within a year to construct the 1,320 megawatt power plant in Khulna at an investment ranging between $1.5 billion and 1.8 billion.

Tender for another similar coal power project in Chittagong with the private sector is expected to be complete before that time.

The joint venture agreement would be the result of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Indian Thermal Power Company (NTPC) on August 31 in New Delhi.

The BPDB had then left a draft joint venture agreement with the NTPC hoping that India would give its feedback on it before the Eid holidays so that the agreement could be signed within this month.

However, India was taking extra time to review some additional Bangladeshi power related documents like the model Power Purchase Agreement or the Implementation Agreement.

"Once they send us their feedback, which we are expecting within the next few days, we will send the draft JVA to the power and law ministries to complete the process within two more weeks," said the top official.

The managing director of the NTPC was scheduled to arrive on September 29 to sign the deal. But this schedule may be delayed by a week or so accordingly.

The draft agreement outlines equal equity between the two countries in setting up the Khulna coal power plant, equal representation of two countries in the board of directors and the modalities of financing for the project among other issues. The chairman and the managing director's position will be periodically rotated between the two nations to maintain equality.

"India will play a vital role in arranging the finances," said the source.

Through the land ministry, the power board has almost completed acquiring 1,800 acres of land for the power project opposite to the Mongla Port in Khulna. All legal procedures regarding the land are expected to be complete by December.

"We are aiming to float the tender for engineering, procurement and construction of the power project by March and award the contract to the best bidder within next September," the official notes.

It will take around three years to complete the construction.

Coal power is considered one of the cheapest in the world but one of the unclean ways to produce electricity. This is why Bangladesh intends to build the plant using super-critical technology to keep the level of pollution as low as the current global technology allows.

The country would set up another 1,320MW such plant in Chittagong under a private-public partnership. Under this deal, the PDB is likely to hold 30 percent share, leaving the rest to the private sector.

The tender for the Chittagong plant is likely to be complete before the Khulna plant as it involves the private sector, PDB officials said. Acquisition of land for this project is also near completion.

At the request of PDB, the NTPC has been conducting a feasibility study for both these plants. Another agency is preparing an environmental impact report for both the sites. The primary reports of both these studies would soon be available to the PDB.

The Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Centre is conducting a study on how coal would be handled for both these plants. This is important as Bangladesh would have to import hundreds of thousands tonnes of coal each month to run these two plants. Transportation and storage of the coal are two vital issues that must be addressed before project implementation.

2 criminals beaten to death after trader killed

A shrimp trader was shot dead by two criminals at Lata Bazar in Paikgacha upazila of Khulna last night.

Immediately after the killing, locals caught the two and beat them to death.

The deceased trader was identified as Dulal Mandal, 35, son of Janek Mandal of Putna Khali village in Lata union.

Humayun Kabir, officer-in-charge of Paikgacha Police Station, told The Daily Star the two criminals shot Dulal in the head around 8:30pm, killing him on the spot.

Later, the locals chased the two and caught them at Kathamari, which is around one kilometre away from Lata Bazar, and beat them to death, he said.

The identity of the criminals could not be known immediately.

Police recovered a Chinese pistol, 20 rounds of bullet and a magazine from the spot.

Dulal might have been killed over previous enmity, the OC said.

In another incident, a class IX student of Platinum Jute Mills High School was beaten to death by some unidentified youths at the playground of the school at Khalishpur of Khulna last night.

The deceased was identified as Bappy, 15, son of Mozaffar Hossain, an employee of Platinum Jubilee Jute Mills at Khalishpur.

The miscreants beat Bappy severely around 9:30pm. He was rushed to Khulna Medical College and Hospital where doctors declared him dead at about 10:15pm.

The body was kept in the hospital morgue for autopsy.

3,500km new power line for Khulna region

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) in its meeting yesterday approved Tk 2,169 crore in seven projects including one for setting up 3,500 kilometres new electric lines in Khulna division.

Ecnec meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair okayed rural Electrification Extension in Khulna Division project worth Tk 393 crore which will end in 2013.

According to the proposal, the lines at greater Khulna will be set up through nine 'Palli Bidyutayan Samitys'. The Power Division said 1.48 lakh new subscribers will get electric connections and it will require additional 36 megawatt of electricity.

Due to power shortage, setting up electricity lines in the rural areas remained suspended for long. But the government has taken fresh initiative to expand it recently.

Earlier, Ecnec approved power line expansion in other divisions. Khulna was the last in the process.

SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME
Ecnec also gave nod to school feeding programme in the poverty-prone areas involving Tk 1,143 crore.

The project will be completed by June 2014 by the Department of Primary Education under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) with half of the assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP).

Under the project, each student of primary schools in the project area covering 86 upazilas of all the six divisions across the country would be given 75 grams of fortified biscuits every day.

In the meeting the PM said, if the managing committees of other schools take initiative to give the students tiffin, the government will provide subsidy to it.

The PM directed the MoPME to take steps in this regard.

Another project for establishment of four fashion design and training institutes and a basic centre for the development of handloom fabrics with Tk 36 crore was also given approval. Under the project, four textile institutes will be set up at Dhaka, Tangail, Sirajganj and Kushtia.

Moreover, a project for setting up four textile institutes involving Tk 127 crore, construction of new youth training centres in 11 districts with Tk 146 crore, a Tk 253 crore project for rehabilitation of Ghorashal Thermal Power Plant, revised project for refurbishment and development of Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium at Chittagong costing Tk 71 crore as venue for holding ICC World Cup 2011 in Bangladesh were also okayed.

Uncertainty over Khulna plant

The launch of a "dual fuel" 150 megawatt power plant in Khulna is uncertain as the government and the project financier are holding opposing views about evaluating the lowest bidder of the 20-month-old tender.

The North West Power Generation Company (NWPGC) that floated the tender for the peaking power plant in March last year marked Chinese company Shandong as the lowest bidder among four participants.

But project financier the Asian Development Bank (ADB) found flaws in NWPGC'S bid evaluation related to a vital peaking power plant component called Hot Gas Path Inspection (HGPI), which is required for quick start of the plant.

If ADB's instruction is applied to properly evaluate the bid by adding the cost of HGPI to other cost outlays, the lowest bidder turns out to be Spanish company Isolux.

The plant will have the capacity to run on both gas and diesel to ensure undisturbed power generation in case of gas crisis.

But NWPGC is reluctant to award the contract to Isolux. If Isolux is given the job, the upfront cost of plant construction would be higher than that of Shandong by $56.5 million, it argues.

However, most part of this extra fund will have to be arranged by the government, the co-sponsor of the project.

The NWPGC notes that the per kilowatt power generation cost in the two-decade plant life of Isolux is the lowest with Tk 5.63 lakh, while that of Shandong is the fourth lowest with Tk 5.69 lakh.

This means, in the long run, NWPGC will gain significantly from Isolux's plant, which achieves lowest price by giving the most efficient equipment, among others.

"This implies a huge difference in cost -- about Tk 6,000 per kilowatt between Isolux and Shandong. That means the cost difference between Isolux and Shandong would be around Tk 6 lakh per megawatt," says a source.

Isolux's plant will generate 158 MW power, while Shandong will produce 142 MW.

As per the bid evaluation criterion, NWPGC is supposed to evaluate the lowest bidder on the basis of per kilowatt power generation cost, not just the plant construction cost.

The NWPGCL on September 23 wrote to the ADB that Isolux's cost of project is $160 million, while Shandong's is around $114 million.

Shandong's project cost is close to that of the Sirajganj 150 MW peaking power project, which is also funded by the ADB and has been awarded to another Chinese company on October 12.

The NWPGCL argued in favour of awarding the deal to Shandong on ground that the government would have to bear additional cost if it is awarded to Isolux.

Sources say the local "unofficial" representative of the Chinese company, a powerful ruling party man, has convinced a section of the government not to accept this evaluation as awarding the job to Shandong would save the government a lot of money upfront.

"That means if he can't get this tender, nobody else would bag this job," comments an official.

Another power tender for a 300 MW plant in Siddhirganj had to be cancelled a couple of months ago because of the dubious role of the same person.

To avoid the ADB's evaluation instructions, the power ministry, through the Economic Relations Division (ERD), late last week in a letter to ADB sought to relocate its financing for the Khulna project to the Sirajganj 150 MW one.

The ADB is financing $110 million for both these projects under one package.

The NWPGC on October 12 signed an agreement with a Chinese company CMC for the Sirajganj project at a cost of $110 million, of which ADB is giving $54 million. The government is supposed to finance the rest.

The remaining ADB fund of $56 million is expected to be pumped into the Khulna project.

In this context, the power ministry has asked to divert the remaining fund to the Khulna project, while the Sirajganj project would be funded entirely by the government.

If the ADB accepts this configuration, NWPGC will go ahead with its own evaluation and award the contract to Shandong, as the ADB would not have any say on this tender. If ADB refuses, the tender is likely to be doomed.

Power Secretary AK Azad told The Daily Star though the ERD had issued the letter, he called up the ADB office asking them to ignore it for now.

"Right now the ADB is reviewing the NWPGC'S observations on the two evaluations. We are not willing to change the [original] evaluation. If the ADB agrees, we'll proceed with the present financial arrangement and not seek diverting fund for the Sirajganj project," he said.

"If the ADB insists on evaluating price by loading the HGPI component, the evaluation will change," he added.

The government has planned a total of 11,000 MW worth of new power generation during its tenure. Of the target, it has already signed deals for over 2,500 MW power generation.

A large part of these projects will be funded by the government.

Feud intensifies in Khulna BNP

As per a directive of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, Khulna City BNP convenor of Shaharuzzaman Martuza in a press statement yesterday withdrew his September 20 statement in which he informed the media that party bigwigs M Nurul Islam and Nazrul Islam Manju were expelled from the district committee.

Nurul Islam is founder president of BNP in Khulna and Nazrul Islam Manju is its Khulna city general secretary.

The BNP supremo had asked Martuza to issue a fresh statement by this evening (Monday evening) as the September 20 statement was issued by him 'without any consultation with the party high command' party sources said.

Dogged by internal feud, intra-party rivalry and squabbles between the two factions of Khulna BNP have taken an alarming turn following expulsion and counter-expulsion by rivals.

One faction is loyal to former lawmaker M Nurul Islam Dadu and Nazrul Islam Manju. Dadu, founder president of Khulna city BNP, held the post till it was dissolved in December 2006.

Nazrul Islam Manju also held the post of general secretary of city Committee from 1990 till it was dissolved by the central committee in 2006.

The other faction is loyal to convicted former city mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman and former lawmaker Ali Asgar Lobi.

Ali Asgar Lobi was made convenor of the city convening committee with Shaharuzzaman Martuza as its member-secretary after the earlier city committee was dissolved by BNP central committee, reportedly without consent of Begum Zia.

On Sunday, the faction loyal to Nurul Islam and Nazrul Islam Manju held a meeting at the party office. M Nurul Islam Dadu presided over the meeting which unanimously decided to expel convicted former mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, Ali Asgar Lobi, BNP district committee president Prof Majidul Islam and Shaharuzzaman Martuza, who is member secretary of the city convening committee and also president of Khulna Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

It was alleged in this meeting that the four persons were involved in activities that tarnished the image of Khulna BNP and 'conspiracy' against Begum Khaleda Zia since the one-eleven.

Speakers at the meeting alleged that Martuza had been maintaining close links with the present caretaker government to hide his alleged misdeeds including extortion and other criminal activities during four-party alliance rule.

Apart from Sunday's meeting in the party office, Nurul Islam Dadu-Manju faction also held a press conference at 11-30 am today (Monday) at Khulna Press Club.

M. Nurul Islam Dadu told the press conference that the city convening committee was illegal as it was not approved by party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia. So, Martuza has no right to claim to be its member-secretary and issue any press statement on organisational matters.

Nurul Islam Dadu also alleged in the press conference that Martuza harboured criminals and was still involved in corruption as KCCI president.

Khulna BNP was virtually divided into two factions following nominations in 1996 parliamentary elections.

One faction was led by Mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman and ex-lawmaker Ali Asgar Lobi while the other by ex-lawmaker M Nurul Islam Dadu and Nazrul Islam Manju.

Intra-party squabbles intensified as Sheikh Tayebur Rahman and Prof Majidul Islam were not given nomination to contest the 2001 parliamentary election from Khulna-2 and Khulna-4 constituencies.

Meanwhile, Begum Zia sent a message on Sunday through central acting office secretary Rizvi Ahmed asking both factions of Khulna BNP to bury differences and work together.

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