BD to provide India power corridor

Dhaka and New Delhi have agreed in principle to explore possibility of developing an interconnection for electricity transmission line involving Bangladesh and India’s north-eastern and north-western side. This agreement in principle came at the 7th meeting of the Joint Steering Committee on Power Sector Cooperation held at a local hotel. Bangladesh Power Secretary Monwar Islam and Indian Power Secretary Prodeep Kumar Sinha led their respective side at the meeting. As per the decision of the meeting, Bangladesh has agreed to provide corridor to use its land for electricity transmission from India’s north-eastern side to north-western side. Briefing on the proceedings of the meeting, Indian power secretary PK Sinha said: “We’ve taken some progressive decisions… a very historic decision has been taken by both side to explore the possibility of interconnection between north-eastern part of India and Bangladesh right through to India.” He said the inter-connection transmission line will be capable of carrying 6000 MW of power for long-run and Bangladesh can also benefit from the interconnection line as there will be tapping point for Bangladesh. Officials informed that Arunachal-Assam-Barapukuria-Bihar route was selected for the best option where an 800kV transmission line will be built. Supporting the statement of his counterpart, Bangladesh power secretary Monwar Islam said the decision was taken as part of Bangladesh plan for promoting regional interconnectivity. Asked how Bangladesh could derive benefit from the transmission line when it will go from one Indian state to another through Bangladesh, Monwar said: “Regional cooperation is a win-win situation, there is certainly benefit for Bangladesh. We’ll get some power from this project, but details could be said only after a study.” Replying to another question, he said this is part of Bangladesh plan and import of 6000 MW of power from regional connectivity was included in “our generation plan of producing 40,000 MW by 2030.” Asked whether Bangladesh will be used as transit point for Indian power transmission from eastern side to western side, Bangladesh power secretary declined to discuss the matter further. About the 1320 MW Rampal power plant near Sundarbans forest under joint venture with India, the Indian power secretary said that an Indian team has visited the site and they were “very pleasantly surprised” to see the site is completely ready for project implementation. The project side is fully available for the power plant, according to a news agency.