Bangladesh to install 1,500 solar-powered irrigation pumps

Plans are in the offing to install 1,500 solar-powered irrigation pumps across Bangladesh by 2016.

The new pumps,to be installed by the Infrastructure Development Company, will run on a combined 12 megawatts of power to be generated by solar panels, projected to save the government nearly Tk 65 crore in fuel-subsidy costs spreading across 20 years.

The project will cost Tk 530 crore. IDCOL will finance Tk 370 crore: Tk 160 crore in soft loans and Tk 210 crore in grants to be provided by the World Bank, KWF and other donor agencies.

The remaining Tk 160 crore will by provided by the equity participants.

IDCOL is open to applications from interested parties and will review the proposals based on a number of criteria, such as financial capability, technical know-how and viability of the project.

IDCOL has already installed seven solar irrigation pumps in as many upazilas, with plans to set up another 50 pumps by the year-end.

Bangladeshi farmers, at present, rely on some 266,000 electrically powered water pumps which consume around 1,300MW to irrigate 1.7 million hectares of land.

And during the peak growing season, a further 1.3 million diesel-run pumps, using up 900,000 tonnes of fuel, are operated to irrigate the additional 3.4 million hectares of land, data from

Currently, the government provides around Tk 24-26 per litre of diesel as subsidy.

“Installation of solar irrigation pump will certainly help the country to save a huge amount of foreign currency,” said Malik, Bangladesh's power and energy minister.

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