Dhaka: Ghorasal 365 MW combined cycle power plant has started commercial operation with supply of electricity to the national grid.

The project was one of the 14 mega power projects undertaken by the government to improve the country’s power supply situation.

Project Director of the scheme Tofazzal Hossain informed after some delay in the initial stage of the project execution, finally the power plant started commercial operation from January 23.

However, as per the project schedule, the simple cycle unit of the plant was supposed to come into operation in June last year and the combined cycle unit on January 1 this year.

‘Our plant has upto 390 MW generation capacity. But we’re now supplying electricity as per requirement set by the load dispatch centre,’ he said.

The state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board signed a contract with Chinese contractor-the Joint Venture of China National Technical Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC) and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC)-on May 2013 to construct the plant on turnkey basis.

Officials said the contractor was assigned to install the plant within 22 months’ period, but it failed as the Chinese ICBC Bank failed to disburse money on time.

The CNTIC & CMC China Consortium had obtained the EPC contract on the 300-450 MW combined cycle power plant project at a cost of $ 244 million (Tk 1944 crore).

Another top official at the PDB said that commencement of the Ghorasal power plant has been a very important for the coming summer as demand for electricity will enormously shoot up at that time.

In the last summer the government had to resort to huge power cut due to shortage in power generation, he added.