Govt to buy 33.60 lakh units of LNG

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) today approved six proposals, including two separate ones, for procuring 33.60 lakh MMBtu LNG and 50,000 tonnes of non basmati boiled rice to meet the growing demand.

The approval came from the 12th meeting of the CCGP of the current year held virtually with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair. While virtually briefing reporters after the meeting, Kamal said that these six purchase proposals would cost around Taka 1,493.49 crore. “Of the total cost, around Tk 958.95 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh portion while the rest of around Taka 534.54 crore as project assistance from the ADB, AFD and EIB.”

Joining the briefing virtually, Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Dr Sahida Akhter said that Petrobangla under the Energy and Mineral Resources Division will procure 33.60 lakh MMBtu of LNG from Excelerate Energy LP, US with a cost of around Taka 218.07 crore. The price of per unit MMBtu will be $6.53.

Sahida Akhter said the Directorate General of Food under the Ministry of Food will procure 50,000 tonnes of non basmati boiled rice from M/S PK Agri Link Private Limited, India with a cost of around Taka 177.11 crore. The price of per tonne of rice will be $430.

Sahida said the CCGP meeting gave nod to another proposal for awarding the works for installing 14km refined water transmission line from Gondhorbpur water treatment plant to Baridhara under the package 2 of the project titled “Dhaka Environmentally Sustainable Water Supply (DESWS)’ to Chinese company

China CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd. with a cost of around Taka 777.40 crore. The meeting also approved a proposal from the Road Transport and Highways Division to award the PW-03 to the joint venture of Md Moyenudidn (Bashi) Limited, Nabarun Traders Ltd with around Taka 122.68 crore for the project to upgrade the Bhola (Porantalukderhat)-Charfashion (Charmanika) regional highway.

Besides, the day’s meeting approved a proposal for awarding works of PW-06 to the joint venture of Md Badrul Iqbal Ltd, Hassan Techno Builders Ltd and Oyster Construction and Shipping Company Ltd with around Taka 118.65 crore for the project to upgrade the Bhola (Porantalukderhat)-Charfashion (Charmanika) regional highway.Apart from this, the meeting approved yet another proposal from the Road Transport and Highways Division to appoint the joint venture of M/S International Consultant and Technocrats Pvt Ltd, India and M/S Sheladia Associates Inc United States as the independent engineering consultant with around Taka 79.59 crore for the operations and maintenance work for Support to Joydevpur-Debgram-Bhulta-Madanpur Road (Dhaka bypass) PPP project. Prior to the CCGP meeting, the 10th meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in this year was held with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.

The meeting approved a proposal in principle from the Ministry of Shipping to follow the Direct Procurement Method (DPM) instead of the PPP model for conducting the capital and maintenance dredging operations at Rabnabad channel in Payra Port.

Answering to a question, the Finance Minister said although it was earlier decided that the capital and maintenance dredging works would be conducted under PPP model, but now the government has decided to conduct the work with its own fund.

He said that a particular amount from the foreign currency reserve would be used for conducting such dredging operations.