Rail maintenance equipment maker Harsco Corp. said Monday it has received $13 million in new rail orders, including contracts from Bangladesh and Liberia, a nod to the company’s effort to bring in new business from overseas.

Under one of the deals, Harsco will build a machine for the Bangladesh Railway system that makes rail tracks more durable by leveling and ramping them.

The unit will be constructed in Harsco Rail’s U.S. production facilities and is scheduled for delivery next year.

The Liberian order calls for the sale of a Harsco Rail Grinder, a machine that helps maintain and improve track by resurfacing and correcting damage. It will also be delivered next year.

Harsco has also received new orders in the U.S. from three railroads for its new drone tampers — fully automated vehicles that can tamp down track beds. The units are scheduled for delivery starting later this year and continuing into early 2012.

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Sources :The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and the Indian state-run National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) signed here today (Monday-30-08-2010) a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for improving power stations in Bangladesh.

The NTPC, as government utility of India, as per the MoU will assess the feasibility of establishing coal-based power stations in Bangladesh. It will also make endeavour to improve human resources through training and development and look into the possibilities for developing power generations projects especially one coal-based project in Joint Venture.

Md. Abul Quasem,Chief Engineer (generation) of BPDB and Mr. A K Sharma, General Manager, of NTPC signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations at the NTPC Bhawan here this morning.

Indian Power Secretary P Uma Shankar and Chairman of the Bangladesh Power development Board Mr. A S M Alamgir Kabir witnessed the signing of the MoU. Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Mr. Tariq A Karim, Chairman of NTPC R. K. Sharma and senior officials of the NTPC and the members of the Bangladesh delegation were also present.

The NTPC may provide engineering consultancy service to BPDB for feasibility studies, site selection, technology selection, engineering design etc, for developing two coal based power projects approximately 1320 MW each in Khulna and in Chittagong, the MoU envisaged.

“The purpose of the MoU is to create a framework for the general understanding between NTPC and BPDB regarding their cooperation in the power sector of Bangladesh,” the MoU said. Dhaka and Delhi during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January this year, had expressed their desire to enhance traditional ties of friendship through development of economic cooperation in different fields including the power generation, transmission and energy efficiency.

Under the MoU signed today, the NTPC may provide long-term operation and maintenance consultancy services to BPDB for its underperforming power stations to improve their operating efficiency. The NTPC may also carry out technical assessment of the old power stations of Power Development Board in Bangladesh for efficiency improvement.

The MoU also have provisions to provide training to power professionals through the existing training system of NTPC and to prepare long term plans for BPDB to utilize NTPC’s training facilities.

The NTPC would also conduct simulator training on combined cycle gas turbine as well as coal fired power stations for improvement of Operation and Maintenance skill.

The NTPC and the BPDB may also set up a coal-based power project at Khulna under joint venture with 50:50 equity participation and the Joint Venture Company (JVC) will be registered in Dhaka.

The Joint Venture Company (JVC) will be managed by its Board of Directors with NTPC and BPDB nominating equal number of directors to the board of JVC. The Chairman of the JVC shall be a nominee director of BPDB for the first eight years and the MD shall be a nominee director of NTPC.

Thereafter, the position of Chairman and MD shall be nominated by rotation for 3-year period each from NTPC and BPDB respectively. A Joint Technical team (JTT) constituted with equal representation from both BPDB and NTPC will oversee the implementation of the MoU, it said.
NEW DELHI, Aug 30 – BSS

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Leading business conglomerate Beximco has set up a joint venture with a Saudi firm to invest nearly $1 billion to upgrade Bangladesh’s sole oil refinery.
“Beximco and Marasel Company Ltd of Saudi Arabia will jointly submit interest for funding an upgradation project of the Eastern Refinery Limited,” a statement from Beximco said.
State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) invited offers in July from international firms and financial institutions to finance the $900 million project near Chittagong port.

“The fund from Beximco and Marasel are likely to be accepted if the terms and conditions are found favourable,” a senior official of BPC told Reuters.

Beximco’s businesses range from textiles to pharmaceuticals. Its subsidiary Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BXPq.L: Quote) BXPH.DH is listed in London.

The Marasel Company Ltd is owned by Saudi Prince Salman Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud and has large investments in different sectors, mainly in energy.

“In line with its business diversification objectives, Beximco Ltd is now poised to enter into the oil and energy sector, and has mobilised necessary resources for this purpose,” the statement said.

Beximco owns the single largest stake in a Bangladesh private bank and a local private airline, a senior executive of Beximco said. But he could not give the size of the conglomerate in terms of equity.

The refinery upgrade will increase ERL’s production capacity by 200 percent to 4.5 million tonnes per year from 2013.

It presently produces 1.5 million tonnes of petroleum products from imported crude to meet 30 percent of the country’s requirement of 3.8 million tonnes a year.

About Eastern Refinery
Corporate Profile

Eastern Refinery Limited, a subsidiary of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation was incorporated under Companies?? Act 1913(amended in 1994) as a Public Limited Company in 1963 with 35% EPIDC??s( East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation) shares, 30% shares held by Burmah Oil Company (BOC) and the rest 35% by private entrepreneurs. From November, 1985, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) became the 100% share holder of the company.

ERL plays a vital role in supplying around 40% of the country??s current petroleum products?? demand and thus maintains stability in the POL Products?? market of the country. ERL sometimes becomes the only fall back system available, to avoid products crisis in the face of disruption of products?? import.

A Board of Directors appointed by the Government, (of which Managing Director of ERL is one of the Directors) manages the company. The Managing Director is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ERL.

ERL as a profitable company in the Public Sector contributes substantially to the national exchequer in the form of dividend, taxes, VAT etc.

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“Iran formally invited Bangladesh last month to join $7.5bn plan

India remains hesitant because of disputes about prices, transit fees and its volatile ties with Pakistan”

DHAKA: Energy-hungry Bangladesh is examining an offer from Tehran to join a much-delayed project to pipe natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and India, an official said on Tuesday.

Last month, Iran formally invited Bangladesh to join the long-stalled 7.5-billion-dollar trans-national gas pipeline, dubbed the ??peace pipeline??, Bangladesh??s energy secretary Mesbahuddin Ahmed told .

??We have sought more information on the offer, which we will examine,?? he said. A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Dhaka confirmed the invitation.

The pipeline plan would see gas carried from Iran, which has the world??s second-biggest reserves after Russia, to Pakistan and then India. New Delhi has hesitated over the project because of repeated disputes about prices and transit fees and its volatile relationship with Pakistan.

But Hossain Mansur, the head of Bangladesh??s state-owned energy giant Petrobangla, told AFP: ??Personally, I??d welcome the offer.??

Bangladesh has offshore gas fields, but the country??s energy reserves are being depleted fast, Mansur said.

The government estimates current gas reserves will run out by 2014-15 at present consumption rates unless new gas structures are discovered.

The country has been grappling with a severe gas crisis in the past three years, with demand shooting up to 2,500 million cubic feet a day, against a supply of 1,950 million cubic feet a day.

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AGARTALA:The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) 726-MW project coming up in Tripura will help to resolve the power crisis in the electricity-starved northeastern region by 2012, ONGC officials said
India’s hydrocarbons exploration major has been setting up the gas-based power project — its biggest so far — in south Tripura’s Palatana, about 65 km south of capotal city Agartala. The plant is expected to be operational by March 2012.

According to ONGC, the Power plant will start generating electricity by December 2011.

??The first unit (is) to be commissioned by December 11th and second one by March 12th (2011), that is the assurance I have been given by various senior level (authorities),?? said R S Sharma, Chairman of ONGC.
The first unit of the project with a generation capacity of 363 MW
The Palatana power project combined with transmission links and gas pipelines is slated to bring in investments of around rupees 90 billion, the largest ever single investment in northeastern region.

I feel this project which is getting commissioned here is not only significant for the economy of the state. It is very important for the economy of the entire northeastern region. More than that, this project is building bridges between the two countries, said Sharma

The kind of cooperation, the mutual understanding and the support that we have been getting from the Bangladeshi government and all authorities, we feel so much happy as the two nations coming together, he added.

Heavy machinery for the project was transported through Bangladesh, with Dhaka allowing transit through the Ashuganj river port on the river Meghna.

With the Palatana project generating excess capacity when completed, India has offered to link Bangladesh to its electricity grid and sell it power to help it overcome persistent shortages in peak demand periods.
The power plant is being developed by the ONGC Tripura Power Co (OTPC), a new company formed for commissioning the project

The forthcoming power project would be the single largest investment of Rs 9,000 crore ever invested in the northeastern region of India,” ONGC chairman and managing director R S Sharma told reporters here.
ONGC, also a public sector undertaking, has 50 per cent equity stake in OTPC. The balance is held by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Service (IL&FS) and the Tripura government.

According to ONGC officials, the state-run Power Grid Corp of India Ltd (PGCIL), OTPC and the northeastern states would set up a 660-km transmission line at the cost of Rs 1,771 crore to hook Palatana with the national grid at Bongaigaon in western Assam.

The much expected commissioning of the power project, a co-generation waste heat recovery power plant and ONGC’s first major commercial project, has been delayed due to difficulties in transporting heavy turbines and machineries to south Tripura.

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sources:p Project backed by World Bank and Asian Development Bank has been questioned over impact on indigenous community.
Four years after operations started Lafarge’s gigantic limestone mine in Meghalaya state, north-east India, is still at a standstill, pending a decision by India’s Supreme Court.

In February the court ordered a temporary halt to mining, demanding the French firm carry out an additional environmental impact assessment focusing in particular on protection of biodiversity on the site and in nearby forests, and prevention of sediment dispersal towards the river. The shut-down is costing Lafarge Umiam Mining Private Limited (LUMPL) $3m a month.

In 2006 Lafarge, a global leader in cement, boasted about the diplomatic and technical expertise deployed to locate this massive industrial facility, costing $275m, on the border between India and Bangladesh. A 17km-long conveyor belt can carry up to 6,000t of limestone a day to the cement works on the other side of the border, where the supply of gas, essential to the production of cement, is plentiful.

In 1997 the project gained the financial backing of the Asian Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank subsidiary, on account of its contribution to developing this out-of-the-way area.

But in 2008 a confidential report by an ADB mission highlighted shortcomings, in particular the lack of transparency in the purchase or lease of land belonging to indigenous peoples. The report, which Le Monde consulted, concluded that the use of a go-between fell short of transparency requirements and did not comply with ADB policy on good governance.

The go-between in question was SG Lyngdoh, a member of the Meghalaya state parliament. In the mid-1990s he negotiated the purchase or use of land owned by indigenous peoples. From 1997 onwards he gradually sold the assets of his own company to LUMPL, a joint venture also involving Cementos Molins of Spain.

Under the Indian constitution, land in tribal areas cannot be transferred to “non-tribals”, unless the transaction contributes to the development of local communities. “And so far no one has benefited from it,” says a member of the Shella Action Committee, which opposes Lafarge’s incursion.

Lyngdoh, however, convinced the authorities to allow him to sell the land he had purchased to foreign organisations. “As far as we know land acquisition policy followed the relevant ADB rules,” a Lafarge spokesperson said.

In the village of Nongtrai, where the population has transferred land-use rights to the mine, Lafarge executives show off the recent improvements: a football pitch, an extension to the school, the purchase of six looms for the women of the village and a visit by a mobile clinic at least once a week.

“It is not much. Above all LUMPL has not allocated an annual budget for local community development. Projects are funded piecemeal,” says Kai Schmidt Solau, who took part in the ADB mission.

In February the Supreme Court decided to appoint other bodies to implement sustainable development policies. It also ordered a fund to be set up and endowed with $4m a year ? existing investments are estimated at $200,000 ? to be paid for out of royalties on the limestone. The fund will be managed by NGOs and the state governor for villages near the mine.

At Shella, villagers are demanding more jobs. “Out of 300 jobs on offer, we only got 50,” says village councillor Tobias Tiewdop. “And the lowest wages are only $65 a month, not enough to feed a family.” “Mike Cowell, of LUMPL’s parent company. responds: “A third of the workforce is allocated to security duties and we cannot give that work to local people.”

Lafarge now plans to invest $1m in a scheme for local residents. “But it is difficult for us to deploy sustainable development policies until we are sure we can operate the mine,” Cowell adds.

The villagers are already dependent on revenue from the mine. Although they only receive 25 cents per tonne of mined limestone, a third of what the owners of small mines in the vicinity ? they all dread what would happen if Lafarge actually left. “We would have to take our children out of the school and find other means of subsistence,” says Daioris Stembon, deputy-chair of the Shella women’s council.

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Bangladesh plans to upgrade Mongla, its second largest port, and to build a third sea port at Kuakata. The twin moves are aimed at providing greater sea access to neighbours India, Nepal and Bhutan.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has already been signed with David Wignal Associate, a Singapore-based private company. The upgradation of Mongla port to international standards could cost $3 billion, Mongla port authority chairman Commodore M. Faruk told United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency.

The project includes construction of international standard jetty, a power generation plant and a water treatment plant, industrial park and container terminal. It will ensure utilisation of port through transit trade with India, China, Nepal and Bhutan.

As per the agreement, all development work are scheduled to be completed by 2030.

The government has simultaneously started the groundwork for the country’s third seaport at Kuakata to facilitate India, Nepal and Bhutan to transit goods, The Daily Star newspaper said Monday.

Kuakata is currently a sea resort and tourist destination in Patuakhali district. It is located 320 km south of the national capital.

A technical committee that visited Kuakata last month and recommended the site for a port, submitted its report to the shipping ministry last week.

Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan said everything will be finalised based on the technical report and added: ‘It’ll be a small port initially’.

A seaport in Kuakata will make movement of goods more convenient than through the ports at Chittagong and Mongla, the minister had said earlier.

Chittagong, Bangladesh’s prime seaport, handles about 90 percent of the maritime export-import trade with an average 10 percent yearly growth. The Mongla port handles the rest 10 percent of the trade.

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Industries Minister Dilip Barua alleged that a section of employees loyal to the BNP-Jama’at alliance are engaged in sabotaging the power sector.

“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered the authorities concerned to keep unhindered the supply of power during Iftar, Tarabi and Sehri. But some employees are intentionally interrupting power system during these sensitive times,” he said.

The minister was inaugurating an international Eid Festival and Meena Bazar at the city’s Samarai Convention Center in Panthapath area Saturday, reports BSS.

Net Work and Event Bangla, two NGOs, arranged the fair and meena bazar on the occasion of Eid-Ul-Fitr.

Companies from India, Pakistan, China, Iran, Bhutan and host country Bangladesh are participating in the fair with different products.

M Yasin Khan, CEO of Net Work, Ali Akbar, CEO of Event Bangla, Selina Quader, Vice Chairman of Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, among others, addressed the function with Captain (retd) Masudur Rahman, president of Mother Teresa Welfare Society in Bangladesh.

The minister said that they had specific information that a large number of employees from Power Development Board (PDB) and WASA participated in the mass procession organised by opposition BNP recently.

Inquiry was going on into the incidents of power disruption during iftar and sehri hours, he hinted saying exemplary punishment would be given if anyone found involved in sabotaging.

Appreciating the initiative to organise such fair, the minister said it was a very good sign that the foreign companies were being attracted for marketing their goods in Bangladesh as the buying capacity of our people have increased.

The initiative would inspire our entrepreneurs to improve the quality of our goods and would be able to participate in the fairs to be organised in other countries, Barua added.

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Bangladesh Friday opened a new land port at Akhaura in Brahmanbaria district that helps it connect with India’s Agartala city.

With the ceremonial opening of the new port, Bangladesh has 14 land ports that ensure better connectivity with India with which it has 4,300 km land border.

Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan are currently working out mutually beneficial arrangements under which Bangladesh will have, and provide, access to the three South Asian neighbours for trade, transit and communication.

All of them would get access to the Bangladesh’s sea ports at Chittagong and Mangla.

India is to facilitate rail and road transit to and from Bangladesh to Bhutan and Nepal.

Together, they form part of the proposed UN-sponsored Trans-Asian highway and rail network.

The Akhaura land port has warehouses, an office complex, open yard and truck parking yard. It has been constructed over 15 acres of land at a cost of Tk 87.5 million ($1.2 million). Agartala is barely 49 kms from Akhaura.

At least 10 trucks would be able to carry goods to within 250 yards of the zero point of the border connecting the port with Agartala, New Age newspaper said.

Through this land port, the country would export fish, cement, furniture, glass sheet, plastic goods, soya oil and tiles. Local traders, on the other hand, would import bamboo, turmeric, watches, ginger, marble slap, fish, leather, textile parts and fruits from India.

Another project, Ashuganj transshipment port, will also help connect Bangladesh with India.

A Bangladesh shipping ministry official said that work will begin next January and complete by 2013 at an estimated cost of Taka 2.5 billion ($3.5 million), The Daily Star reported.

India has for decades sought permission to use Ashuganj for transshipment.

Ashuganj, located in the Brahmanbaria district of Chittagong division, will become the port of call for consignment bound for its Palatana power project in Tripura.

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Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith today said the syndicate that controls the market is so strong that it could not yet be broken and only five people control the country’s sugar market.
“We couldn’t break the syndicate. There are only five people who are controlling the sugar market. The situation for soybean is much better,” he told journalists after a meeting with a delegation of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) in the conference room of the Finance Ministry. SCCI President Annisul Huq led the delegation.
The finance minister said the only way for controlling
prices of commodities is increasing competition in the market. “Enactment of a Competition Act will take some time,” he added.
Replying to a query, he said that of course, no force is stronger than the government but there are many powerful persons in the country at present. “The powerful people have made a power base,” he added.
The charm of the parliamentary system is that countervailing forces are at play, he said adding despite differences in opinion there should have been coordination among the forces.
While his attention was drawn to the government decision on cancellation of mobile courts’ anti-adulteration drive in the market, he said the operation of mobile courts should continue.
On the transit issue, the Finance Minister said, negotiations will be carried on. “We should gain something out of it, something of course. Being a transit country, you will have to get some benefit, he added.

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