The cabinet committee on government purchase has approved proposals to buy 90,000 tonnes of bagged granular urea fertiliser from Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited (KAFCO) and from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The total cost will be Tk 469 crore 92 lakh 61 thousand 500.

The proposals were approved at a virtual meeting of the purchase committee chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Sunday afternoon (17 October).

After the meeting, Md Shamsul Arefin, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division, told journalists that 10 proposals were placed before the committee. Eight were approved and two were sent back to be placed again.

The additional secretary said the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will buy 30,000 tonnes of bagged granular urea from KAFCO in the sixth lot, at $601 a tonne, for Tk 154 crore 24 lakh 66 thousand 500.

The committee also approved proposals for BCIC to import 30,000 tonnes of bulk granular urea in the sixth lot from Muntajat of Qatar under a state-to-state agreement, and 30,000 tonnes in the seventh lot from Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, also under a state-to-state agreement. This fertiliser will be bought at $615 a tonne, and the 60,000 tonnes will cost Tk 315 crore 67 lakh 95 thousand.

Other proposals approved at the meeting were for the Central Medical Stores Depot (CMSD) to buy 20 lakh coronavirus test kits in three lots for Tk 117 crore 41 lakh; for the Payra Port Authority to buy two 70-tonne bollard pull tugboats with the necessary equipment and services from Khulna Shipyard for Tk 131 crore 73 lakh 41 thousand 896; and to extend the existing agreement to import 160 megawatts of electricity from Tripura in India.

The committee approved a tender to print, bind and supply free textbooks in five lots for classes three, four and five, in Bangla and English versions, for the 2022 academic year. The National Curriculum and Textbook Board will print the books for Tk 8 crore 6 lakh 64 thousand 830.

A proposal was also approved to set up a 660-megawatt gas- or RLNG-based combined cycle gas turbine power plant at Meghnaghat, Jamaldi, in Gazaria upazila of Munshiganj. The Bangladesh Power Development Board will implement the project from its own funds over 22 years at a cost of Tk 69,165 crore 36 lakh. It will start from 2026, and the agreement will be made on that basis.

Source: Banglanews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.