Officials to discuss Indian power import issues in Delhi next month

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Nazmul Ahsan
The issue of importing 250 mw electricity from India is likely to make some headway next month at the meetings of the Joint Steering Group and the Joint Working Group of India-Bangladesh, scheduled to begin on June 23 next in New Delhi, official sources said.
The meetings are expected to discuss the tariff of electricity to be imported from India and the details of constructing transmission lines and other infrastructures, officials added.
"Our target is to finalise as many as issues possible relating to power import at the upcoming Joint Steering Committee meeting before placing the same to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for approval," a high official in the Power Division told the FE.
"Fixing the power tariff and building the necessary infrastructures are two major issues will be discussed at the high profile meetings." He added.
Some progress towards these issues is expected, he said.
The government initiated an unprecedented move to import electricity from neighboring India. In this respect, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed during the visit of the Bangladesh Prime Minister to India in January this year to import 250 MW of electricity from India to Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the government has formed a 12-member Steering Committee, headed by MD Abul Kalam Azad, Secretary, Power Division, and eight-member Working Group, headed by MD Mofazzel Hossain, Joint Secretary, Power Division for the meetings.
The official representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, commerce, finance and power have been included in both the committees.
The Power Development Board (PDB) will make the purchase while the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) and the Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI) will jointly build transmission lines to carry the power to the Bangladeshi grid, power Division officials said.
Bangladesh requires additional electricity supplies as the country's electricity generation is now hovering around 3,700 mw against the peak hour demand for over 5,500 mw.
The country's electricity demand has been growing by 7.50 per cent annually since 1990.
Around 40 per cent of its population has access to electricity --- one of the lowest in the world ---, the power ministry statistics reveals.
As of June 2009, Bangladesh's electricity consumer-base reached 11 million. The country has now 8,000 kilometers of electricity transmission lines, 256,000 kilometers of distribution lines.
Augmenting electricity generation is a key priority of the Awami League government. It has pledged to generate 5,000 mw of power by 2011, and 7,000 mw by 2013.
The exchange volume would be started from 250MW for initial period while it could eventually be as high as 1,000MW as the project cost was estimated at around 200 million US dollar, sources said.
The New Delhi meeting will focus mostly on 250 megawatt and establishing the required infrastructure both in Bangladesh and India, he added.
Meanwhile, the government of Bangladesh floated international tenders in March last to build necessary infrastructure to import around 500 megawatts of electricity from the neighbouring India, officials said Monday.