Bangladesh gets a $465 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Dhaka, Bangladesh | June 28, 2007 by D-8 Secretariat

Bangladesh will get a $465 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to finance two new power plants to ease chronic electricity shortages that have sparked violent protests and hurt the country's economy. ADB official said that the loan proposal was approved on Tuesday at its board meeting in Manila.

Bangladesh will build two power generation plants, with 150-megawatt (MW) capacity each, as well as three power transmission and six distribution lines with the help of the ADB loan, a government official said.

According to Pil-Bae Song, head of the project administration unit of ADB's South Asia Department, this program supports the government's goal of providing reliable electricity to the entire country by 2020, and will result into better and more affordable services to the public.

Bangladesh can produce at best 3,000 MW electricity against demand of 5,000 MW and barely 30 percent of the country's 140 million people have access to electricity.

The World Bank has said the country would require $10 billion in investment over the next 10 years to overcome the electricity shortage. It has said frequent power failures cut Bangladesh's gross domestic product by around $1 billion annually.

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