Dhaka – State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral resources Nasrul Hamid Bipu on Sunday said India is ready to provide whatever quantity of electricity Bangladesh needs.
The junior minister came up with the self-assurance after a meeting with Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pankaj Saran at his office.
Both Bangladesh and India are in talks over power sector cooperation, he said
“I was also ensured that if we want, India will give us electricity no matter how big our demand is”, Hamid told reporters after the meeting adding that Indian was also positive for providing avenue to Bangladesh for regional power import from neighbouring Bhutan and Nepal.
The minister reminded that energy secretaries from the four countries is expected to sort out the ways on November 27. The meeting is scheduled to be held in India.
Terming the proposed coal based power plant as the example of bilateral cooperation between the two countries, Hamid said that all the due procedures will be completed to ensure protecting the environmental issues related to Sundarban, the single largest mangrove forest in the world.
The state minister said Bangladesh has been preparing for import of 600 megawatt of more electricity from India as domestic demand was going high every day.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) has already approved two projects that would cost Tk 1,600 crore for setting up gridlines to import the electricity, he said.
Of the power to be imported, 500 MW would come from Bahrampur in Indian state of West Bengal and another 100 MW from Tripura’s Paltana through a substation in Comilla.
The country has been importing 500 MW of electricity from India since October 2013 through the grid interconnectivity between Bahrampur and Bheramara. T
he average price for a kilowatt-hour of electricity from India is nearly Tk 6 per unit including transmission cost.
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