Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are going to inaugurate the second Indo-Bangla power gridline on September 10.
“The premiers of Bangladesh and India will inaugurate the second Indo-Bangla gridline through videoconferencing on September 10,” state minister for power and energy Nasrul Hamid told on Sunday.
The second gridline will facilitate import of 500MW more electricity from India, he said.
A total of 640MW electricity is now being imported from India – of which 540MW comes from Bheramara 1st HVDC line, he added.
The rest of 100MW will come from Cumilla via Tripura in India. The Indo-Bangla power exchange began in 2013.
Bangladesh planned to commission the Bheramara 2nd high-voltage direct current (HVDC) on May 31, 2018. But the Indian side had no schedule on it.
Besides, Bangladesh has already signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) and Implementation Agreement (IA) in November 2017 as Bangladesh is expected for commissioning 1600MW import from January 2022.
The state minister for power and energy also said that the government had taken a plan to import 9000MW of electricity by 2041 from cross-border and regional power trade.
“Bangladesh is now importing power from India, but is planning to import more electricity from Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar also.”
The Bangladesh government has already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nepal.