ICBC provides $224 million buyer’s credit loan for 3rd Phase of Barapukuria Power Station Project (Linked to Record ID#52735 and ID#33957)

Project narrative

In January 2014, ICBC provided $224 million buyer’s credit to a joint venture of Harbin Electic International Co., Ltd. and CCC Engineering Ltd to increase the capacity of the 250MW Barapukuria coal-fired thermal power station by 275 MW, the third phase of the expansion project. The remainder of the estimated cost of the $330.52 million project was to be funded by the Government of Bangladesh. The buyer’s credit reportedly carried an interest rate of 3.99% a maturity of 13 years, a management fee of 1.5%, an insurance premium of 6.62%, and a commitment fee of 1%. The Government of Bangladesh provided a sovereign guarantee for this buyer's credit on February 16, 2015. Harbin Electric International and CCC Engineering China were the contractors responsible for project implementation. The exact locational coordinates of the power plant are available at http://globalenergyobservatory.org/geoid/40466. As of August 2, 2016, 40 percent of the power plant project was complete. The power plant was connected to the power grid on November 10, 2017, Harbin Electric International and CCC Engineering China originally expected to complete the project in June 2018. However, the project was finished ahead of schedule on May 27, 2018. On July 22, 2018, the Barapukuria coal-fired power plant was shut down after the discovery of the “Barapukuria coal scam”, which was a corruption scandal concerning the misappropriation of around 142 hundred thousand tons of coal, worth over BDT 227 billion by officials of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL) from the coal mine of Barapukuria, Dinajpur District, in northern Bangladesh. The scandal was revealed in July 2018 when a board member of the Bangladesh Power Development Board went to visit the coal mine and found no fresh coal whereas according to the document there should have been around 142 hundred thousand tons of coal reserved. The matter came to light when a Bangladeshi English-language daily reported the incident. Petrobangla, the parent organization of the BCMCL, promptly suspended a few officials in this connection while the Anti-Corruption Commission started an inquiry to trace the corruption. Barapukuria's coal-fired power plant suspended its operations due to the shortage of coal as an immediate effect of the corruption scandal. Before the shutdown of the plant, it had been supplying around 380MW power to the national grid on an average. When the power plant shut down the first time, the people of eight northern districts of Rangpur and Dinajpur regions suffered from a lack of electricity. BPDB then decided to restart one of its units for five days on August 20, 2018. On August 28, 2018, the plant shut down again.