Power crisis in Chittagong
A very interesting and informative front-page news on the subject was published on July 3 in a local English daily.
The CTG proposes to rent a large liquid fuelled power plant for a short period (?) for Chittagong--an expensive and Tuglaqi decision!
On the other hand, the same CTG has entered into a MoU of around Tk 17,500 crore to buy airplanes, which are normally available on hire (charter)! If ever there is a case of putting the cart before the horse and subjective decision making, this one tops them all! Even the corrupt and self-motivated earlier political governments never took such an illogical and farcical decision, as far as I can recall!
The scarcity of gas was passed on to high gas consumption across the country! So the CTG wants us to reduce if not stop gas consumption.
Meanwhile, they would like three-wheeler autos to run on costly imported petrol! They also are surprised at the many captive power plants running, although the quantity, cost and poor quality of the power supplied by the public sector power plants have been a fact since the 70s. May be, many in the current crop of advisers and special assistants to the advisers are Johnny-come-lately to Bangladesh having lived abroad for many years.
They are further surprised how we can consume more gas than what is written in the Master Plan-- their holy book? The special assistant's statement is : "As per the Master Plan, the demand for gas in the country should be 0.6TCF in 2009-2010". “How on earth can we consume this now” was the implied conclusion!
No wonder there are no coal-fired power plants, and no coal mines coming up, may be it is not there in the "Master Plan", so how can we start putting it up? So this is how goes our wise and master plan based logic and thought process. What a classically new and ingenious way to "pass the buck on"! This very unique concept of the reasons behind our gas and power shortfall is indeed the best on offer and cannot be bettered! It is the lamest of lame excuses on record! Long live the "Master Plan"!
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