No reason to fear for Sundarbans: Muhith

The protestors seeking cancellation of the coal-fired Rampal power plant project do not have evidence that the plant would jeopardise the Sundarbans, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said.

He maintained that the government had no option but to turn to coal to boost power production.

“No matter what Mr Anu Muhammad says, we have to set up coal-based power plants,” Muhith said referring to the Member Secretary of a platform to protect oil, gas and natural resources.

ফাইল ছবি

“Coal is the cheapest [raw material available] and we are trying to utilise it,” said the founding President of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (BAPA).

Several leftist parties, environmentalists and a number of organisations are protesting against setting up of the 1,320MW plant 14 kilometres from the Sundarbans. Bangladesh and India are jointly installing the plant.

Protestors claim the plant will endanger the world’s largest mangrove forest. A long march was also led to Khulna protesting the move.

Muhith said the distance between the plant’s site and the Sundarbans was ‘quite sufficient’.

He said fears that the Sundarbans would be destroyed because of the plant were ‘unfounded’.

The government has announced that the project’s foundation stone would be laid on Oct 22 while the protestors had given it until Oct 11 to drop the project.