Mahidul Islam Ripon, Dinajpur

After being shut down for about 40 hours due to a mechanical fault, Unit No. 1 of the Barapukuria Thermal Power Plant in Dinajpur has been restarted. As a result of the restart of the unit, 230 MW of electricity is now being added to the national grid from this coal-based thermal power plant with a production capacity of 525 MW. Due to constant mechanical faults and various complications, it has never been possible to produce the desired electricity from this power plant with a production capacity of 525 MW.

Chief Engineer of Barapukuria Thermal Power Plant Md. Abu Bakkar Siddique said that Unit No. 1 of the thermal power plant, which has a production capacity of 125 MW, was shut down at 5:50 am last Saturday (August 1) due to a mechanical fault. After about 40 hours of relentless efforts by the power plant engineers, the unit was restarted at 1:30 am on Monday (August 3) after fixing the mechanical fault.

The chief engineer said that currently 55 MW of electricity is being generated from this unit with a production capacity of 125 MW. In addition, 175 MW of electricity is being generated from Unit No. 3 with a production capacity of 275 MW.

He said that 230 megawatts of electricity currently generated from two of the three units of the Barapukuria Thermal Power Plant is being fed into the national grid.

According to relevant sources, the Barapukuria coal-based thermal power plant was built next to the mine in 2006 based on the coal produced by the Barapukuria coal mine in Dinajpur. Initially, two units with a total generation capacity of 250 MW each were set up. Then, in 2017, another unit (No. 3) with a generation capacity of 275 MW was commissioned, increasing the total generation capacity of this power plant to 525 MW. But despite having sufficient coal reserves, this power plant could never generate 525 MW of electricity at a time due to various complications of mechanical faults. Rather, the production of this power plant has been completely stopped at various times.

The source said that out of the three units of the power plant, Unit No. 2 with a generation capacity of 125 MW has been completely shut down since November 2020. Since then, the remaining two units of this coal-based power plant have been in between operation and shutdown. Unit No. 3 with a generation capacity of 275 MW was shut down in October 2025 for overhauling work. After completing the overhauling work for seven months, the unit was commissioned on May 20 this year. After five days of commissioning, 6 bearings were damaged, Unit No. 3 was shut down again on May 25. After about a month of renovation, the unit was commissioned on June 23. In addition, the production of the thermal power plant was completely stopped on April 22 this year due to the bursting of the boiler pipe of Unit No. 1. Finally, Unit No. 1 was commissioned on April 24 after 46 hours. In this way, this coal-based thermal power plant is in between operation and shutdown.

The Chinese contractor Harbin International is responsible for operating the Barapukuria Thermal Power Plant, which uses coal from the Barapukuria mine. According to the contract, the contractor is supposed to carry out minor repairs and supply spare parts to keep production running, but it is alleged that the contractor has not done so. As a result, production has been disrupted repeatedly and there is uncertainty in the desired electricity supply from this power plant to the national grid.