DHAKA - Bangladesh on Tuesday signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with a consortium of two Chinese firms for the installation of some $1.56 billion coal-fired power plant in the country.

Officials of the consortium of the Chinese firms -- NPEC and CECC -- and the Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL), a joint venture of China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC) and Bangladesh's North-West Power Generation Company Limited (NWPGCL), signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides here on Tuesday night.

Bangladeshi Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Advisor to the Prime Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Tawfiq-e-Elahi, Bangladeshi State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid and Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ma Mingqiang, among others, were present at the signing ceremony.

The consortium of the Chinese firms is assigned for the plant's engineering, procurement and construction while BCPCL is its executing agency.

Bangladesh and China set up the BCPCL to implement the project at Payra in Patuakhali district, some 204 km south of capital Dhaka, near Payra maritime port.

According to a paper distributed among journalists during the ceremony, the project will cost an estimated $1.56 billion.

It said the 1,320 mw power plant is scheduled to go into full operation by December 2019.

The plant which is to be built on a 397-hectare land is a part of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina government's plan to set up a series of coal-fired power projects to generate 20,000MW electricity by 2030.