The government yesterday picked the lowest bidders for building a 181-kilometre gas transmission pipeline in order to facilitate imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from April this year.

The cabinet committee on purchase approved the bidders for the Chittagong-Feni-Bakhrabad pipeline.

The bidders are -- a joint venture of Arc Construction Company & Cathweld Construction; GasMin Ltd; a joint venture of Pipeliners Ltd and Business King Ltd; Bangladesh Foundry & Engineering Works; a joint venture of Technic Construction Company Ltd and Royal Utilisation Services; Dipon Gas Company Ltd; and Libra Enterprise. They will set up the eight sections of the pipeline at a combined cost of Tk 346.54 crore.

The government has taken initiatives to import a huge amount of LNG to tackle a growing energy shortage largely caused by depleting domestic reserves and rising demand of gas.

It signed an agreement with Excelerate Energy, Singapore to set up a floating LNG terminal with a capacity of processing 500 million cubic feet of gas per day in Moheshkhali of Cox's Bazar. The LNG will be added to the national network by April.

The government also awarded Summit Group the work to set up another floating LNG terminal with the same capacity in Moheshkhali. This one is due for commissioning in October.

Three projects have been undertaken to set up a total of 290 kilometres of transmission pipeline to import a total of 2,000 mmcfd of gas. 

The cabinet committee also approved a proposal to import about 10.10 lakh tonnes of gasoil, 1.1 lakh tonnes of jet fuel and 2.6 lakh tonnes of furnace oil from 10 countries from January to June.

The imports will cost the country Tk 6,651 crore and come from China, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Kuwait and the Philippines.

The petroleum products would be imported through government-to-government arrangements.

The committee also approved a proposal allowing the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) to buy a further 50 lakh machine readable passport (MRP) booklets and 55 lakh lamination foils from British firm De La Rue under an existing contract at Tk 94.97 crore.

In 2013, Bangladesh signed a deal with the supplier to procure 1.5 crore MRP booklets and as many lamination foils.

As per the deal, the British firm has already supplied 1.48 crore booklets and 1.5 crore foils. The DIP has already used 1.33 crore booklets and 1.36 crore foils, leaving it with a stock of 15.38 lakh booklets and 13.68 foils.

The stocks can meet the country's requirements of booklets and foils for three months as the DIP uses about 3.30 lakh booklets and lamination foils every month.