The supply of additional 500 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh from India has started on Monday after the leaders of the countries switched on the power transmission on Monday.
However, initially, West Bengal’s Baharampur grid is supplying 300 megawatts (MW) electricity to Kushtia’s Bheramara.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian premier Narendra Modi jointly inaugurated the power transfer from Dhaka and New Delhi through video conferencing.
The leaders turned the switch on for the newly-built 500MW High-Voltage DC Back-to-Back Station 2nd Block on the occasion.
They also inaugurated constructions of the Bangladesh part of the Akhaura-Agartala dual gauge rail line project and the Moulvibazar district Kulaura-Shahbazpur rail connection renovation project.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tripura Chief Minister Biplob Kumar Deb also attended the ceremony via video conferencing from Kolkata and Agartala respectively.
Hasina said Bangladesh plans to import 9,000 MW power by 2041 from neighbouring countries, expecting India to stay beside this endeavour.
She added that steps have been taken to immediately import 3,000 MW more from India as Bangladesh currently imports 660 MW from there.
Indian Prime Minister Modi described the inauguration of the projects as the ‘opening of a golden chapter.’
“From today we became closer and our relationship has been deepened further,” he said.
In 2013, Bangladesh started to import 500 MW power through West Bengal’s Baharampur grid to Bangladesh’s Kushtia. Later, the supply of another 160 MW started through the northeastern Indian state of Tripura.
With the supply of the additional 500MW, Bangladesh now imports some 1,660MW power from the neighbouring country.
The BPDB had invited tenders for supply of 500MW power from India om short-term (Jun 1, 2018 to Dec 31, 2019) and long-term (Jan 1, 2020 to May 31, 2033).
NTPC and PTC India emerged as the lowest bidders to win the contracts to supply power to Bangladesh for 15 years.
According to people familiar with the matter, Bangladesh will buy power from NTPC at Tk 4.71 per unit for short-term and Tk 6.48 from January 2020 to May 2033.
PTC India will sell at Tk 4.86 per until December next year and at Tk 6.54 from 2020.
Bangladesh’s power generation capacity has grown by two and half times in the last eight years, but the country is yet to bring its entire population under electricity coverage.
With efforts to raise investment, both local and foreign, through setting up more than 100 economic zones, power demand is set to shoot up in the coming years.
