A consultation mission of Asian Development Bank will arrive in Dhaka this month to examine scope of the installation of 500MW capacity solar energy system in Bangladesh.
The ADB also plans to take an initiative to organise an investors’ meeting in Dhaka by September to ensure donors’ support in the project, a top official of the Power Division told the news agency on Sunday.
‘The consultation mission will oversee the financial and technical viability of the Bangladesh’s plans to install 500MW capacity solar energy system and arrange an investors’ meeting here,’ additional secretary of the power division Taposh Kumar Roy said.
A Bangladeshi high level official team led by adviser to the prime minister Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury attended a international conference on solar energy sponsored by the Asian Development Bank in Bangkok on May 29 and placed its plea on the issue.
Following the ADB’s strategy to promote renewable energy in Asia, the power division has chalked out its plan to set up a solar energy system and projected its plan to negotiate for the fund with the donor agencies to implement the mega solar power project.
‘We need three billion US dollars to implement the plan,’ Taposh Kumur Roy said.
According to the power division, government sought 60 per cent of the fund as grant money from the donors.
The ADB is discussing with European countries about an investment fund of $500 million for solar projects in developing countries like Bangladesh, official sources said.
The additional secretary said the authorities had identified nine ministries which would implement the solar energy plan in coordination with the power division, official sources said.
The ministries are — power ministry, communications ministry, local government ministry, housing and public works ministry, health and family welfare ministry, religious affairs ministry, education ministry, industries ministry and agriculture ministry.
-With New Age/BSS input
