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After spending extra funds, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) has sought the revision of a project, which is intended to install a 400KV high-voltage gridline, officials said on Monday.
The state-owned grid operator has sought 85 per cent additional funds at the last stage of its project tenure and has recently sought the revision of the original development project proposal (DPP), they said.
The Planning Commission (PC) has raised its reservation about the spending that went beyond the estimates of the original proposal, officials involved with the project told the FE.
The PGCB has now sought a total of Tk 25.05 billion funds, 85 per cent higher than its original estimation of Tk 13.56 billion, seeking revision of the ongoing Aminbazar-Mawa-Mongla power transmission line installation project.
The company has also sought six months more from its extended execution deadline of June 2021.
Officials said that the PGCB had spent Tk 1.69 billion additional funds, up from the Tk 4.68 billion allocations at the original project proposal for the electrical equipment procurement component without approval from the proper authority.
Similarly, it had spent extra money higher than the allocated funds for some other components at the original DPP, they said.
"This is a clear violation of government rules and regulations. No agencies are allowed to spend more funds than allocated in the DPP," said a senior commission official.
They are not allowed to transfer money from one component to other from the approved project without getting the endorsement of the authority, he told the FE requesting anonymity.
If any executing agency needs to change or revise the project design, any component at the DPP or their fund allocations, it must have to take approval from the Planning Commission as well as from the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), he added.
Yet, the PGCB has changed its project design violating the approved DPP, which was endorsed by the Prime Minister-headed ECNEC.
According to the revised proposal, the PGCB has sought Tk 11.27 billion funds, almost triple the allocations made in the DPP for electrical equipment component.
It also demanded Tk 5.18 billion funds compared to its current original allocation of Tk 1.82 billion at the DPP for customs duty, VAT and tax component.
Similarly, it sought Tk 948.68 million extra funds from its original allocation of Tk 3.37 billion in the DPP for constructing the tower.
When asked, a PGCB official said the company had changed the route of the gridline in the middle part of the project implementation.
It had changed the gridline alignment and decided to install a 75km 400kv transmission line from Aminbazar to Gopalganj, and another 96.93km line from Gopalganj-Mongla.
In the original DPP, the government approved to install the 164.6km high-voltage national grid line from Aminbazar-Mawa-Mongla.
A senior Power Division official said since the design of the project had been changed, it is now needed to be revised with the extended costs and time.
"We requested the Planning Commission for revising the project as it would evacuate electricity from the under-construction Rampal power plant, Rooppur nuclear power plant and the proposed power plants at Pyra area," he said.
Another PGCB official said since there would be a big substation at Gopalganj for evacuating power from the Rooppur power station and the proposed plant at Pyra, the design had changed in the middle of implementation.
"Besides, there was a provision for procuring ACSR-type cables for the gridline in the original DPP, which has now changed to a high-capacity and costlier cables and conductors," he added.
In March 2016, the ECNEC approved the Aminbazar-Mawa-Mongla 400kv power transmission grid line installation project at a cost of Tk 13.56 billion aiming to complete by June 2020.
After failing to comply with the deadline, the PGCB had got one more year up to June 2021 for completing the project without increasing the cost.
Now, the PGCB has recently sought revision of the project seeking additional time and money.