<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">A ship carrying 41,327 metric tonnes of coal has finally arrived at Payra Port 18 days after the Payra thermal power plant halted power generation due to coal shortage.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The MV Athena – the vessel which brought the first shipment since the closure of the plant – is scheduled to unload some of the coal that arrived while anchored in the channel by 3 pm on Friday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The vessel is scheduled to enter the jetty of the 1320 MW Payra thermal power plant on Friday night.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Four more coal-laden ships will arrive at Payra in the first week of July, according to plant officials.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Plant Manager Md. Golam Mawla said the Payra thermal power plant is likely to resume power generation after storing about 2 lakh metric tons of coal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, the official did not rule out the possibility of going into power generation from June 25.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The country's largest thermal power plant, Payra, was completely shut down on June 5 due to fuel shortage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Due to the failure to pay the outstanding bills of $390 million caused by dollar shortage, production of a unit of the power plant was halted on May 25 as the companies involved stopped supplying coal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another unit's production continued until June 5 which was also shut down due to coal shortage. The shutdown of the country’s biggest thermal power plant led to weeks of nationwide load-shedding amid the hottest summer on record.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shah Abdul Hasib, superintending engineer (operation) of Payra Thermal Power Plant, said the opening of the LC was delayed due to the dollar crisis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Outstanding bills worth “$100 million have already been cleared through the World Bank,” he said. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>