Bangladesh plans to generate 60,000 MW electricity by ’41

Staff Correspondent: State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has announced in Parliament the plan to generate 60,000 MW of electricity by 2041. He said the government has taken this plan to increase the power generation capacity considering the development of the power sector and the growing demand of the future power sector.
He made the remarks during a question-and-answer session of the National Assembly yesterday. Speaker Dr. Opposition Jatiya Party MP Syed Abu Hossain Babla raised the issue in a session chaired by Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury.
In a written reply, the state minister said the power generation capacity was 4,942 MW when the present Awami League government took power in early 2009. According to the government’s plan, power generation capacity will be increased to 40,000 MW by 2030.
Responding to a question from ruling party MP Didarul Alam, Nasrul Hamid told parliament that by 2030, the number of power transmission lines in the country will be 26,300 circuit kilometers. At the same time the power distribution line will be increased to 8 lakh 10 thousand.
Replying to a question by Mahfuzur Rahman of the same party, the state minister said the present government has taken up the plan of immediate, short, medium and long term power generation for the overall and balanced development of the power sector including giving maximum priority to power sector development. Before 2009, only 48 percent of the people in the country had access to electricity.
As a result of implementation of various schemes of the government through close supervision, the remaining 53% of the people in the power sector have been brought under the power facility in the last 13 years and now 100% of the people have come under the power facility. It has been possible to extend 100% electrification in all the upazilas of the country except some remote areas of Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The country has 9.30 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves
Responding to a question from ruling party MP Habibur Rahman, State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that according to the latest estimates, the total primary gas reserves were 39.9 trillion cubic feet and the proven and potential (cap) reserves were 27.42 trillion cubic feet. But as of December 2021, the country has extracted 19.11 trillion cubic feet of gas and has about 9.30 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.
At present, gas is being supplied to different categories of consumers (electricity, captive power, industry, fertilizer factories, CNG, household, commercial and tea gardens) in 30 districts of the country.
He further said that there is a deficit compared to the demand for stored domestic gas production, which is aimed at increasing the production of domestic gas fields including LNG imports and various activities for discovery of new gas fields (offshore and offshore).
Responding to a question from Mozaffar Hossain, a member of the ruling party, Nasrul Hamid said the total investment in 34 ongoing projects of Petrobangla was Tk 14,048 lakh. Of this, the amount of foreign investment is 3 thousand 61 crore 70 lakh taka and the amount of domestic investment is 10 thousand 917 crore 8 lakh taka.
The state minister said the total investment in 9 projects under Petrobangla’s DPP approval process is Tk 3,434.63 crore. Its entirely domestic investment.