This will be the third-time tender flotation within three and a half years time for a mega-infrastructure project such as this in the country's power sector, sweating under a high demand.

Sources said on different occasions of floating tender between 2002 and 2004, the government had to receive a single offer for the major project as many potential firms refrained from dropping offers for different reasons.

In the first tendering process, Summit Group, a local business house, offered to set up the project under a joint venture with the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB). The PDB is also the power purchaser of the project.

The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchases, a cabinet subcommittee headed by Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman, approved the project.

Thereafter, it had to pass through 41 levels in the perusal process -- stretching from the PDB to the Cabinet Division -- consuming more than two years. Finally, the scheme got a top-notch cabinet body's nod.

But when the Power Division was preparing to award the project to Summit Group, the entire process was cancelled showing corruption and irregularities as the grounds.

The higher authorities also had formed an inquiry committee that found 23 officials at fault. None was, however, booked.

On the other hand, officials of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the financiers for the project, said they did not find such malpractice in the procedure.

Later, the government invited tender afresh for a second time in 2004. This time, the government asked the interested international firms to participate in the pre-qualification (PQ) bidding to set up the plant on Build-Own-Operate basis. Three local and international firms qualified in the pre-qualification exercise.

But when the firms were asked to submit their respective technical and financial offers in May, again it was found that only PHP-Essar Power, a joint venture of local and Indian firms, dropped offers for the project.

The other pre-bid qualifying firms backed out without assigning any specific reason, the sources said.

Recently, a tender-evaluation committee formed for examining the offers of the single bidder uncovered the technical proposal of the PHP-Essar Power. But the committee, in its final judgement, made the offer non-responsive.

Thereafter came an advice from a higher authority for the power ministry to cancel the second tender as well and go for a fresh one to seek new proposals for the project, competent sources said.

In compliance, the Ministry cancelled the tender and was now preparing to go for inviting tender over again for the project.

Indicating to the nemesis of the 450-MW Sirajganj power project, State Minister for Power Iqbal Hassan Mahmood told a seminar recently that 'a so-called note' of a bureaucrat is good enough for the death of a power project.