$100m loan deal signing with ADB today

---

FE Report
The government signs a US$100 million loan deal with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today (Wednesday) for installing Bangladesh-India cross-border power grid to import electricity from its big neighbour, officials said Tuesday.
Finance ministry officials said the ADB in a negotiation in August this year agreed to bankroll the 400-kilovolt (kv) power transmission grid between the two countries.
The government will install 40-kilometre-long 400kv cross-border power transmission line at a cost of Tk10.40 billion ($150 million) by June 2012 aiming at importing 500megawatt electricity from India, a power division official said.
He said the state-owned Power Grid Company Ltd (PGCB) has already undertaken the project to build the transmission line.
About 100 kilometre cross-border power grid will connect Bangladesh's western Bheramara and India's eastern Baharampur in the West Bengal state.
The PGCB will set up the 40km grid from Bheramara to the border point and the rest nearly 60km portion from border point to Baharampur will be installed by the Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI).
Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) on July 26 signed a 35-year power transmission agreement aiming to import 250mw electricity in the first year from the neighbour, starting from late 2012, and it will reach 500mw subsequently.
The agreement keeps the provision for Bangladesh to export power to India in the future, and the transmission system will have the capacity to exchange 500mw of power soon after the system is launched.
Following the acute power outages in Bangladesh, the two neighbouring countries signed a deal for setting up the high voltage transmission line during a visit of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January this year.
Bangladesh's domestic power demand is increasing at about 8.0 per cent a year due to its booming industrial sector requires new electricity connections everyday.
Bangladesh's ailing power sector supplies nearly 4000mw of electricity daily against the demand for over 5500mw.