BANGLADESH

Bangladesh Power Development Board and National Thermal Power Corporation of India are set to float a joint venture for the 1320 MW power project in Khulna by the end of this month.

The NTPC chairman-cum-managing-director Arup Roy Chaudhary said that an agreement to set up the joint venture would be signed by Jan 29 next.

"It would be a 50:50 joint venture between NTPC and the Bangladesh government," Roy Chaudhary told journalists in New Delhi on Monday.

The NTPC and PDB on Aug 30 last year signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint venture project in Khulna.

The power plant is likely to be run on imported coal and operated by the NTPC that is also exploring cooperation with PDB for another power project in Chittagong.

New Delhi recently said that Bangladesh was welcome to take part in the power projects in north-eastern India.

"India has a liberal policy permitting 100% FDI in respect of projects relating to electricity generation, transmission and distribution. In this regard, the participation of Bangladesh in power projects in India, particularly in the north-eastern states of India adjoining Bangladesh, would be welcome," India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement issued on Jan 11, around the same time prime minister Sheikh Hasina arrived in Agartala – the capital of northeastern Indian state of Tripura – for a two-day visit.

New Delhi referred to Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka in Sep 2011 and said that India and Bangladesh had agreed to promote trans-border cooperation in the management of shared water resources and hydropower potential as well as eco-systems and in the area of connectivity.

"It was also agreed (during Singh's meeting with Hasina in September 2011) that arrangements for cooperation in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, including electricity from renewable or other sources, would be established," said the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.

New Delhi said that such joint ventures in the power sector involving the two countries would also facilitate the evacuation of power from north-eastern India to Bangladesh and into other parts of India through Bangladesh.

"Details of such cooperation can be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the Steering Committee on Power held at the level of secretaries between the two countries," it added.

According to the joint statement issued after the two prime ministers had met in Dhaka on Sept 7 last year, Hasina and Singh had called for expeditious conclusion of Power Purchase Agreement between Bangladesh Power Development Board and India's state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation for purchase of 250 MW power from India by
Bangladesh.
"It was agreed that Bangladesh would procure the additional 250 MW of power from the open market in India utilizing the full capacity of the power transmission line being established through inter-grid connectivity at Bheramara and Behrampur," read the joint statement.

Hasina and Singh had asked officials concerned to undertake necessary steps for conducting feasibility reports for the setting up of a similar 1320 MW coal based power plant at a suitable location in Chittagong.

A 400 KV high-voltage power transmission line is being constructed between Berhampur in India and Bheramara in Bangladesh and works could be completed by the end of this year or early next year.

Although India offered 250 MW power to Bangladesh according to the January 2010 MoU, the transmission line will have an initial transfer capacity of 500 MW. The transmission systems of India and Bangladesh, which are based on 400 KV Alternate Current (AC) and 230 KV AC respectively, are proposed to be synchronised by installing a back-to-back HVDC link.

Singh had thanked the Hasina government for allowing passage of over-dimensional cargo for the Palatana power project in Tripura through Bangladesh.