India’s Reliance Power and Japan’s Jera have achieved financial closure for their proposed gas-fired power generation project in Bangladesh, the Indian company said on March 4.  

The Reliance-Jera joint venture has achieved financial closure for the project with a group of lenders that includes Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Asian Development Bank and all requisite conditions for availing drawdown under the loan agreements have been satisfied, the company said. 

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The project is to build, own and operate a 750-MW combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant at Meghnaghat, Narayanganj, located 40 km southeast of Dhaka. Under a long-term power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh Power Development Board, the electricity generated will be sold for 22 years after commercial operation starts. The JV has also signed a gas supply agreement with Titas Gas, a subsidiary of Petrobangla for the supply of gas to the power plant. 

Reliance Power’s wholly-owned subsidiary Samalkot Power has received approval from the US Exim Bank to sell one module of equipment to Samsung C&T of South Korea, who is the EPC contractor for the project, for rupees 15.4bn ($210mn). In 2019, Reliance Power announced a debt-restructuring deal with US Exim Bank for its Samalkot project in India, which was rendered defunct due to lack of gas supply to it. The company decided to relocate the equipment from the project to Bangladesh. 

Notice to proceed has been issued by the project company to Samsung C&T, who in turn has issued the notice to proceed to Samalkot Power for the supply of equipment, the company said. Samalkot Power will supply one module of equipment to phase 1 of the project.