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The National Steering Committee on Power Sector Reform in a meeting Thursday sought opinions from ministries concerned about the much-touted power sector reform roadmap within a week.
The committee reviewed the power sector's reform progress and expressed its satisfaction on the performance of the West Zone Company and the North West Zone Company, sources said.
Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office Kamal Uddin Siddiqi chaired the meeting, held at the power ministry Thursday. Power, Energy, Finance and Planning secretaries are among the members of the committee, the highest policy level body for the power sector.
The three-year power sector reform plan (2006-08) is linked to the release of an ADB (Asian Development Bank) soft loan.
The Manila-based development lender had linked the roadmap approval to the release of the first tranche of its loan worth US$ 60 million.
The government is in talks with the ADB to borrow US$ 255 million from it to help finance its colossal $462 million power sector investment programme. The residual amount will be financed from the government coffers.
The investment plan, being undertaken in response to the widespread public bashing for the current electricity crisis, is part of the government's Power Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
Under the plan, the government will build a 150 mega watt (MW) peaking power plant, improve the transmission system and upgrade the distribution systems in the respective areas of DESA (Dhaka electricity Supply Authority) and DESCO (Dhaka Electricity Supply Company).
The reform roadmap is aimed at augmenting the power-starved nation's electricity generation capacity by at least 1400 megawatt (MW) by the next three years.
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