For Renu Begum, having access to electricity at home was a distant dream even a year ago.
"My three children go to school. Without electricity, it was very difficult for them to do their homework in the evening while our household work also got hampered", said Ms Begum, a rural homemaker.
While they live in just 42 kilometres away from the capital, Ms Begum and many of her neighbours at Suapur village in Dhamrai could not access grid electricity just a few months back.
However, her life improved when her home got linked to the grid connection from the Rural Electrification Board eight months ago.
"Now, my children can study comfortably, thanks to the electric lights," said Ms Begum.
"This is a dream come true for all in my family", she said, "Now that we have grid connection, we are now planning to buy a television and a refrigerator for our home soon".
Like Ms Begum, around 12.5 million people across the country have been connected to the grid electricity for the first time over the last two years, thanks to a rural electrification project partly funded by the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Starting from July 2016, the project is part of a national plan to provide grid connections to 2.5 million rural households, upgrade two grid substations and convert 85 kilometres of overhead distribution lines into underground cables.
The installation of 2.5 million service connections is now complete while the remaining work is expected to be completed by 2019, officials said.
The total cost of the project is around US$ 262.29 million, out of which the AIIB would provide US$ 165 million.
The government's contribution would amount to US$79.40 million.
With more than 160 million people and an economy that is growing at a rate of more than 7.0 per cent each year, Bangladesh's energy demand is growing exponentially.
The country's energy generation capacity has crossed 16,000 megawatts, quadrupling in the last nine years.
According to the government's Power System Master Plan (PSMP 2010), electricity demand is, however, expected to rise to 34,000MW by 2030.
As per the government figures, 90 per cent of villages have been brought under the electrification coverage while the rest are expected to be covered by December this year.
"In that context, this rural electrification scheme supported by AIIB has been very timely in expanding rural electrification across the country", said SM Zafar Sadek, Chief Engineer of REB.
"The project is also aligned with the country's need for US$ 40 billion in investment generation, transmission and distribution of electricity by 2030", Laurel Ostfield of the AIIB said.
"Bangladesh is an extremely important country of operations for AIIB", said Emil levendoglu, who is the UK Director of AIIB.
"So, it is very important for us to see the impact of the investment that AIIB is making and to visit the communities that have benefitted from the investment", Levendoglu said while visiting the Suapur village on Monday.
levendoglu and several other Directors of the AIIB are currently on a visit to Bangladesh to see the bank-funded schemes and meet various policy makers and other stakeholders.
Since its inception, the Beijing-based multilateral development bank has approved three projects for Bangladesh, totalling up to US$ 274 million in funding.
Apart from the rural electrification programme, the AIIB is investing up to $ 49 million to help fund the US$ 270 million in Bhola IPP.
In addition, AIIB is investing US$ 60 million to help fund the estimated US$ 453 million Natural Gas Infrastructure and Efficiency Improvement project, which is expected to improve gas production efficiency and expand gas transmission pipeline capacity.
Starting its operations from January 2016, the AIIB has now grown to have 87 members worldwide while it has approved a total of 28 projects, committing total of funding of US$ 5.34 billion globally.
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