India supplies 500MW addl electricity to Bangladesh

India has started supplying an additional 500MW of electricity to Bangladesh, report agencies.

The power transfer from the West Bengal's Baharampur grid to Kushtia's Bheramara was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi via videoconference on Monday.

The two prime ministers officially inaugurated the newly-built 500MW High-Voltage DC Back-to-Back Station 2nd Block on the occasion.

The two prime ministers also inaugurated construction work on the Bangladesh portion of the Akhaura-Agartala dual gauge rail line project and the Moulvibazar district Kulaura-Shahbazpur rail connection repair project.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tripura Chief Minister Biplob Kumar Deb also spoke via videoconference from Kolkata and Agartala respectively.

According to the agreement, 300MW of power will come from India's public sector 'National Thermal Power Plant' and 200MW from the private sector 'Power Trading Corporation'.

Currently, India exports 660MW of power to Bangladesh, 500MW of which are transferred through the Baharampur-Bheramara connection and 160MW from Tripura to the Cumilla power grid. Tk 6.78 billion will be spent to rebuild the 53km-long Kulaura-Shahbazpur rail connection, of which Tk 5.55 billion will be paid by an Indian LoC, while the Bangladesh government pays the remaining 1.23 billion.

The project will build railway bridges, bridge and station buildings, platforms, rail lines and other rail infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Monday the government has planned to import 9000 MW of electricity from neighbouring countries by 2041 to maintain the country's high economic growth.

"We've a plan to import 9000 MW electricity from neighbouring countries by 2041," she said.

The Prime Minister was addressing a ceremony marking the inauguration of 500 MW Additional Power Supply from India to Bangladesh.

Sheikh Hasina joined the ceremony from Ganobhaban while Narendra Modi from New Delhi and Mamata Banerjee from Kolkata.

Hasina said Bangladesh needs more energy to keep up its high economic growth and the government is planning to import electricity from neighbours under the regional cooperation framework.

Expressing the hope that neighbouring India will remain by Bangladesh in its endeavour, she said Narendra Modi would take necessary steps regarding Mamata's offer to supply additional 1,000 MW of electricity to Bangladesh.

She said the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India have now turned into a role model for the rest of the world as mutual trust, respect and good will between the two countries have made it mature over the years.

In recent years, she said, the two nations witnessed a remarkable progress on cooperation in a host of areas, including trade and commerce, power and energy, connectivity, infrastructure development and people-to-people contact.

Hasina said both sides have also ventured into new areas such as blue economy and maritime cooperation, nuclear energy, cyber security, space research and so on.

Referring to her government's success in increasing the power generation capacity, the Prime Minister said the capacity has now stood at more than 20,000 MW from 3,200 MW over the past nine and a half years.

She said the government is building additional 55 power plants having the generation capacities of 13,690 MW.

About cooperation in the railway sector, Hasina said Bangladesh and India are experiencing enhanced cooperation and working to reopen the pre-1965 rail links for cargo transport between the two countries.