Gautam Adani, founder and chairman of Adani Group, met prime minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Saturday. He came to Dhaka in a brief visit to thank the prime minister for full load commencement and handover of the 1600mw coal-fired Godda power plant in the Indian state of Jharkhand.
According to reliable sources at Power Division and Adani Group, Gautam Adani landed in Dhaka by his personal aircraft at 10:00am on Saturday. He paid a courtesy call on prime minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban around 11:00pm and left Dhaka by his personal aircraft around 1:15am.
Regarding this, state minister for power, energy and mineral resource Nasrul Hamid said Gautam Adani came to Dhaka to thank prime minister Sheikh Hasina on the full load commencement of the Godda power plant.
Meanwhile, Gautam Adani tweeted with images of his brief visit to Dhaka and meeting with prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
“Honoured to have met Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina on full load commencement and handover of the 1600 MW Ultra Super Critical Godda Power Plant. I salute the dedicated teams from India and Bangladesh who braved Covid to commission the plant in record time of three-and-a-half years,” Gautam Adani tweeted.
There are two 800-mw units in the1600mw coal-fired Godda power plant. Power supply from the first unit started on trial basis in March. The first unit started commercial power production on 6 April and the second unit at 12:00am on 25 June.
Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Adani Group in 2017. Under the PPA, the BPDB will purchase electricity from the Godda power plant, owned by Adani Group’s subsidiary Adani Power, for 25 years.
The BPDB, however, raised objection on price of imported coal, to be used in the power plant before commencement of production. BPDB held a series of talks with Adani representatives on this matter and the Adani promised that price of coals will not be more than the price of coals being used in Payra and Rampal power plant.