Page 82 - November 2020

A PAUSE
ON POTATOES

YET AGAIN

Indo-Bangla trade The price of vegetables, except for potatoes,
holds great potential after remaining out of consumers' reach due to
reduced in the capital's kitchen markets, a month

high prices. But traders said that cold storage
owners were not releasing potatoes for less than
Highlighting an earlier call for Bilateral Value Chain
Initiatives (BVCI) in knowledge transfer and value chain Tk35-36 per kilogram, although they were
resources from India to maximize Bangladesh’s production instructed by the government to sell to
competitive advantage, the Federation of Bangladesh wholesalers at Tk27 per kg.
Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) President In several kitchen
Sheikh Fazle Fahim expressed his confidence over next tier markets potatoes were
bilateral trade relations. Fahim hoped to achieve this with found retailing for
the support of the newly appointed Indian High Tk45-50 per kg, despite
Commissioner (HC) Vikram K Doraiswami, after meeting the Department of
with the latter at the renovated FBCCI Icon 60 Motijheel in Agricultural
the capital on Saturday, said a press release. Marketing's directive to
Bangladeshi exports, joint-ventures (JVs) in automobile, sell potatoes at Tk35
motorbike components manufacturing, quantum per kg in retail.
computing, quantum internet, start-up ecosystem, cyber Wholesalers at Karwanbazar kitchen market
security, skills, digital equipment R&D and production stopped selling potatoes for the second time in a
among others are best ways to achieve shared prosperity for week as they could not purchase the item from
India, Bangladesh and beyond, the FBCCI chief also said. cold storage owners at government-set price.

Commercial operation of
660MW Payra 2nd unit

power plant to begin soon

Commercial operation of the second unit having 660 MW
generation capacity of the country’s largest coal-fired power
plant at Payra will be conducted very soon as everything is
ready. Second time test to run the unit will be completed
before Commercial Operation Date (COD. Everything is
computerized of the power plant as there is no scope for
manual operation. The first trial run was conducted on
September 26. According to the project details, the first 660
MW unit of the power went into commercial operation in
May 2020, utilising the 400 kV Payra-Gopalganj Power
Transmission.

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