A mega plan for meeting Bangladesh’s electricity demands without setting up power plants in Rampaland Rooppur will be revealed shortly by the National Committee for Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports.
The plan to be presented on Jul 22 will involve less cost than the current one and act as a counter proposal to the government’s ‘regressive plans’, Prof Anu Muhammad, the committee’s member secretary, told a rally in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The government justification for plans for a thermal plant in Bagerhat’s Rampal and a nuclear power plant in Pabna’s Rooppur was for meeting rising demands, he said.
“There is no bigger fraud than this. Rampal and Rooppur plants are not being set up to meet demands but to secure the interest of foreign countries,” he commented.
The committee, by conducting researches during the past seven months, has drawn out a cost-friendly mega plan for meeting electricity demands without dependency on foreign aid or loans, said Prof Muhammad.
“The people of Bangladesh will be able to use this electricity at a cheaper cost.”
The committee will also protest against the Rampal power plant, an Indo-Bangladesh initiative whose proposed location was near the Sundarbans, by demonstrating on 100 kilometres of road between Sarankhola and Shyamnagar on Jul 25, he said.
The committee will continue to protest the 1,320MW coal-fired plant near the world’s largest mangrove forest despite the UNESCO’s decision to withdraw objections about the location.
“It is the UNESCO’s defeat if it changed its stance listening to the Bangladesh government or someone else. The people of Bangladesh won’t back away even though the UNESCO has. We’ll continue our campaign,” the national committee leader said.