State minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid on Tuesday said that Bangladesh would import a total of 200MW of electricity from Palatana power plant at Tripura in India.
He said, 100MW will come in 6-7 months and then another 100MW will come, he told reporters on the sideline of the first technical seminar on the proposed Power System Master Plan 2015.
Referring to a discussion with Indian premier Narendra Modi in Tripura on Monday, Nasrul Said that the Bangladesh delegation requested to export 100MW of power more from the Palatana plant.
Prime minister’s energy adviser was also present there in Tripura when Modi inaugurate the Palatana power plant.
‘India was committed to export 100MW of electricity to Bangladesh from the Palatana plant as we allowed them to transport heavy machineries and equipments for the plant,’ he said.
When asked, Nasrul said that the price of electricity would be very ‘cheap’ as the plant was fired by natural gas.
Bangladesh in 2011 allowed free transportation of the turbines, generators and other heavy equipment through Bangladesh to set up the first unit of the 726MW power plant at Agartala in Tripura.
New Delhi on May 23, 2014 agreed to export 100 MW of electricity from Palatana Power Plant in Tripura.
Nasrul, at the Tuesday seminar, said that Nepal and Bhutan came forward to allow Bangladesh to invest in the hydropower projects there and to import electricity from the countries.
Then India, he added, responded to Bangladesh’s need to utilie its land to import electricity from Nepal and Bhutan.
He said, Bhutan’s premier’s visit to Bangladesh was due on December 6 and the issues would be discussed then.
Meantime, Bangladesh has decided to connect the power grid of the southern part of Comilla with India’s eastern province of Tripura to import 100 MW of electricity.
The authorities concerned will isolate the southern part of Comilla from the national grid as the authorities would not build any infrastructure like high voltage direct current (HVDC) substation, to safeguard both the grids.
The Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) and its Indian counterpart had already completed a route survey to establish a 132 kV power transmission line of about 52 kilometres length.
PGCB would invest in the infrastructure as it is a one-way transmission from Tripura, officials said.