Power Division Secretary Monwar Islam will be leading the Bangladeshi team at the JSC meeting
At least six major issues, including import of electricity by Bangladesh from Nepal and Bhutan, are likely to dominate the upcoming 8th Joint Steering Committee (JSC) meeting scheduled to be held on October 10 in New Delhi.
The Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) of Bangladesh and India on power sector cooperation will also hold a meeting at the same place a day earlier.
Power Division Secretary Monwar Islam will be leading the Bangladeshi team at the JSC meeting.
“The JSC will discuss import of additional 500MW of electricity by Bangladesh through Bheramara-Baharampur grid and review the progress of importing of 100MW of electricity from Palatana [Phase-1] power plant in India’s Tripura state,” Monwar Islam said.
The meeting will also discuss import of electricity by Bangladesh from Nepal and Bhutan and development of a joint venture hydro-power plant project in north eastern states of India.
The discussions will also review the progress of the second grid inter connector between Bangladesh and India (Rangia/Rowta-Jamalpur-Barapukuria-North Region/West Region India) and import of electricity by Bangladesh from North-Eastern States of India through this grid inter connector.
Along with that, the meeting would also review progress of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt) Ltd in developing the 1,320MW Moitree Super Thermal Power Project in Rampal of Bagerhat.
“We would focus on sharing hydroelectricity with Nepal and Bhutan through the Indian corridor. Bangladesh proposed to set up a joint-venture hydroelectric power project with Nepal, which has a prospect of generating 90,000MW electricity,” an official of power division told the Dhaka Tribune.
India has joint-venture connectivity with Bhutan for facilitating electricity import. India has a potential to generate 100,000MW of hydro electricity while Bhutan and Nepal have potential of generating 35,000MW and 90,000MW of electricity respectively.
“We have already sent a proposal to the Indian side as they had earlier showed interest to invest in a project in Arunachal state of India,” he said.
During the seventh JSC meeting in April this year in Dhaka, Dhaka decided to allow New Delhi to transmit power through Bangladeshi territory in exchange of providing 500MV-1000MW to Bangladesh on a daily basis.
According to the plan, India will set up power lines for transmitting electricity from Assam to India’s northwestern regions using three routes through Bangladesh, including Dinajpur’s Barapukuria and Jamalpur.
Source :Dhaka Tribune
