After a delay of more than two years, finally the Aminbazar-Gopalganj 400 KV power transmission line came into operation crossing the Padma River.
“The line was commissioned successfully at 1:40 pm on December 15 (Thursday) from Gopalganj grid substation with 400 KV voltage”, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) said in a Facebook post.
However, PGCB managing director Golam Kibria said that although the line was commissioned, electricity flow will not be given through this line.
"We've planned to flow electricity from next Saturday on test basis and then step by step it will be fully commissioned by gradually synchronising with all the systems”, he told UNB.
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PGCB officials said that the full commissioning of the newly constructed line will facilitate electricity transmission from the two large power plants—1320 MW Payra and 1320 MW Rampal power plants—in the country’s southern region to Dhaka city.
Of these, the Payra power plant having two units, each 620 MW capacity, set up in joint venture with Chinese company, have already been commissioned. The first unit (620 MW capacity) of Rampal power plant is also being built in joint venture with an Indian company and it is expected to be commercially commissioned in March next year.
“If the electricity from these two plants can come to the capital city, it will play an important role to improve the power supply situation”, said a top official of the Power Division.
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The government had undertaken the implementation of the Aminbazar-Gopalganj transmission line in 2016.
But due to construction of the Padma Bridge, works of tower installation in Padma River remained suspended until completion of the bridge construction. As a result, the project experienced a huge delay to complete.
The PGCB in the Facebook post mentioned that the newly constructed Aminbazar-Gopalganj 400 KV power transmission line has been successfully commissioned with charging power by the PGCB.
The length of the line from Gopalganj to Aminbazar grid substation is 82.5 km. Of which there is a 7.5 km river crossing on Padma River.
The Gopalganj to Aminbazar line has a total of 226 towers. A total of 11 tall towers have been constructed in the Padma River and also on both sides for facilitating the river crossing.
As the line has been successfully charged at 400 KV voltage, soon after all technical preparations and evaluations, power transmission (load flow) will be started on this line.
With the commissioning of the newly constructed line, the previously constructed Payra-Gopalganj 400 KV line and Gopalganj-Mongla 400 KV line have been connected to the Aminbazar grid substation on the outskirts of Dhaka.
This has made the connection to the national grid stronger and more reliable with the greater Khulna and Barishal regions, the PGCB mentioned.