The first consignment of coal for a thermal power plant being developed by state-owned NTPC Ltd through a joint venture in Bangladesh is getting ready at the port in Calcutta and will be shipped to Mongla Port in the neighbouring country in the next 2-3 days, an official said on Thursday.

The 1,320-MW Rampal Power Plant is being built by BIFPC, the joint venture between India's NTPC Ltd and Bangladesh Power Development Board.

"The first full rake of coal has arrived at Calcutta docks from Dhanbad and is now getting unloaded. It will be shipped to Mongla Port in the next 2-3 days for Rampal Power Plant," Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (formerly Calcutta Port Trust) Deputy Chairman A K Mehera told PTI.

The is the first shipment for a trial run, he said.

"Each rake consists of about 3,800 tonnes of coal. It will be the first export of coal cargo from this port," Mehera said.

The coal-fired unit of Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company was supposed to be completed by December 2020, but the work got delayed, sources said.

The time for completion of Bangladesh's largest power plant, also known as Maitree Super Thermal Power Project, has been extended by a year, they said.

Once the unit will run in full capacity, there will be transportation of 20,000 tonnes of coal cargo per month from Kolkata port, the sources said.

Spread over 1,834 acres of land, the power plant is situated 14 kilometres north of Bangladesh part of Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest and an ecologically sensitive area.

Environmentalists had raised voice against the development of the Rampal Power Plant close to Sundarbans, which is also a UNESCO world heritage site.