The 1320 MW Rampal power plant has resumed its partial production, but officials still worry about its uninterrupted operation due to dollar crisis that may again disrupt the import of coal, the plant’s main fuel. The Unit-1 of the coal-fired plant resumed production from Wednesday after a month-long shutdown caused by shortage of coal. The plant is still under a test run that started in August before being discontinued last month. A kind of concern was expressed by the officials of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL) that has been engaged in implementing the power plant project. During a briefing session on Thursday, Subhash Chandra Pandey, the project director of the BIFPCL for the Rampal plant said there is no substitute to coal import if the plant is to be kept operational. “The coal used in the plant is of high standard and not available in the subcontinent”, he told a group of energy reporters who visited the plant. According to official sources, Unit-1, having 660 MW capacity was forced to shut down on January 14 due to shortage of coal supply. The authorities of the power plant were unable to open any letter of credit (LC) to import coal due to the dollar crisis. After a lot of persuasion at the government’s policy level, LC opening was allowed for importing coal and the supplier sent a consignment of 30,000 metric tons. BIFPCL officials said the supply of foreign exchange required for import of coal for the plant is not under their control. Read more: Rampal’s unit-1 to resume power generation Wednesday under 'test run' The BIFPCL, a joint venture of Indian state-owned NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), is the owner and operator of the Rampal power plant. The official said another consignment of 50,000 MT of coal is also coming to the country soon. With the current stock of coal, the plant can run until April this year, said the project director adding that the unit-1 needs about 4500 MT of coal per day to keep operational with full capacity. “The unit -2 is expected to come into operation in June this year and at that time it will require about 9,000 MT of coal per day”, the official of the project said. He said though the unit-1 is now under test run as the BPDB which has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the BIFPCL has not given the go-ahead yet for start of the commercial operation of the plant.

The salvage operation of the MV-Sagar Nandini-2 vessel that sank carrying 11 lakh metric tonnes of furnace oil in the Meghna River, was launched on Thursday four days after its sinking. A team comprising members of river police, coast guard, divers and Bangladesh Water Transport Inland Authority (BIWTA) started the operation with the help of two barges---Jahura and Humaira this morning. Md Shahjahan, director of river protection and management division of BIWTA, said the furnace oil from the sunken vessel will be first extracted while the dredging work was going on to retrieve it. He said it is not certain how many days it will take to salvage the vessel as the operation depends on tide. The salvage operation will hopefully be completed within next Sunday, he said, adding that they were working carefully due to having explosive substances inside the vessel. On the other hand, fishermen were informed that they spotted fishes floating in the river and might have died due to oil spilled into the river. Read more: Ferry gets stuck in Meghna shoal, passengers rescued The fishers, however, said oil was seen in the river for the first two days since its sinking, though the water is now clear. The vessel named ‘Sagar Nandini-2’ from Chattogram port sank in Meghna as another vessel hit it at Tulatuli Majher Char while heading towards Chandpur Padma Depot around 4am on Sunday. The accident took place due to poor visibility caused by the dense fog. All the fuel spilled into the river. Local people later collected the fuel in containers. Fortunately, all 13 crew members of the vessel were rescued by another vessel passing through the area. The authorities concerned formed two separate investigation committees to unveil the reason behind the sinking. Meanwhile, a large area in the Meghna river has been polluted by furnace oil spill since the vessel with 11 lakh litres of oil sank in the river — posing threat to biodiversity and environment. Read more: Oil spill in Meghna river threatening environment, vessel still not recovered after 36 hours

New Bangladeshi private carrier Air Astra will start operations in November. The airline received the go-ahead from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Thursday. Read: US-Bangla Airlines wins Best Domestic Airlines award Air Commodore Shah Kawsar Ahmed Choudhury, member for flight standards and regulations of CAAB, handed over the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) to Imran Asif, chief executive officer and accountable manager of Air Astra, at a ceremony in Dhaka. Air Astra already took delivery of two ATR 72-600 aircraft at Dhaka and two more aircraft are scheduled to be delivered within 2022. The French-built aircraft is one of the most modern turboprops in the world with excellent industry reliability, configured to carry 70 passengers in a comfortable, quiet cabin, according to a media statement.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) on Sunday suspended the operations of MV Surovi-9 over allegations of a technical glitch after a fire broke out on it Saturday night while carrying 300 passengers. Meanwhile, Barishal River Port officer Mostafizur Rahman lodged a complaint against the launch manager Mizan and other staff of the launch over the incident and for attacking the journalists. Mostafizur Rahman, the operation of the launch on Dhaka-Barishal-Dhaka route, will remain suspended until further notice. “The decision was taken followed by the chaotic situation created over the technical glitch and attack on journalists,” he said. Also read: Fire breaks out in Barishal-bound launch; Doused quickly Earlier two camerapersons lodged separate complaints against the manager over the incident of attack. According to camerapersons of Independent Television and two other private channels they were attacked around 11pm while recording video footage of the launch as it was brought to Barishal.  No damages or casualties were reported in the fire that originated in the engine room of MV Survi-9 launch as it was extinguished before it could spread. Kaiser Alam, BIWTA's Chandpur port officer said, passengers were sent to Barishal by another launch considering the security issue and MV Survi-9 has been docked at Mohanpur ghat. Also read: Jhalakathi launch fire: Probe body submits report On December 24, a deadly fire broke out in Barguna-bound launch MV Abhijan-10 carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka and it engulfed the entire vessel within 10 minutes. The death toll from the fire accident reached 49 till January 3. Besides, over 70 people suffered injuries, and many of them are currently undergoing treatment at different hospitals.

The search drive in the Sugandha River was going on for the 3rd consecutive day on Sunday for tracing those who went missing following a massive fire in a crowded launch near Jhalakathi in the early hours of Friday. The divers from local fire service and Coast Guard resumed the search operation on Saturday morning and it is still continuing, said Khalulur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station in Jhalakathi district. “No new body was recovered from the river till the filing of this report around 11 am,” he said. READ: Jhalakathi launch fire: Death toll reaches 41 Besides, the control room, set up by the local administration, listed the names of 25 missing people with information given by their relatives and family members. Earlier, the bodies of 23 people were buried in a mass graveyard following a namaz-e-janaza in Barguna on Saturday. The bodies were buried at Potkakhali mass graveyard in Sadar upazila around 12 pm. The blaze broke out at 3am on Friday on the Barguna-bound launch carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka and it engulfed the entire vessel within 10 minutes. READ: Launch fire tragedy: Probe body visits spot The death toll from the fire incident climbed to 41 on Saturday night. Besides, over 70 people suffered injuries and many of them are undergoing treatment at different hospitals.