Delhi willing to meet power demand of Dhaka: Bipu
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid Bipu said yesterday that India has expressed willingness to provide whatever amount of electricity Bangladesh may need. Talking to reporters at his office in the secretariat after a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran, the state minister said Bangladesh is in talks with India to ensure increased cooperation between the two countries in the power sector.
I was assured that, if we want, India will give us electricity no matter how large our demand may be, Nasrul Hamid said. He said that India is positive about providing avenues to Bangladesh for regional power import and sharing with Bhutan and Nepal. The energy secretaries of the four countries will sit on a meeting in India on November 27 to discuss the issue, he said. Terming the proposed coal based power plant in Rampal as an example of bilateral cooperation between the two countries to bolster the power sector, Hamid said that all due procedures will be maintained to ensure protection of the environment of the Sundarbans.
Regarding electricity import from India, Hamid said that process is ongoing to import 600 megawatts or more electricity from India to meet the countrys demand.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has already approved two projects at a cost of Tk 1,600 crore for setting up gridlines to import electricity from India, he added.
500 MW of electicity would come from Bahrampur in West Bengal of India and another 100 MW from Paltana of Tripura through a sub-station in Comilla.
The country is receiving 500 MW electricity from India since October 2013 through the grid interconnectivity between Bahrampur and Bheramara.
The average price for a KW-hour of electricity (one unit) from India is nearly Tk 6 including transmission cost.
