Dhaka agrees to allow power corridor to New Delhi
Bangladesh has decided to allow India to use its soil to transmit 6,000 megawatt of power from Assam to Bihar through Dinajpur using a new electricity network, officials said today.
A committee has been formed to see the feasibility of transmitting power through Rangia Raota in Assam to Borakpur in Bihar through Dinajpur's Boro Pukuria, said Monowar Islam, power secretary of Bangladesh.
The committee has been told to submit the report within six months, Islam told reporters at a joint briefing at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital.
The briefing came after the completion of the seventh meeting of the Bangladesh-India joint steering committee on cooperation on power.
Islam however could not immediately say about the benefit Bangladesh would avail for allowing its neighbour to use its soil. He however said: "Bangladesh will definitely get some power from the power network."
The project plans to start transmitting power, to be produced in hydropower projects in Arunachal Pradesh, from Assam Pradesh to Bihar from 2017.
Indian Power Secretary PK Sinha, who led the Indian delegation to the two-day meeting, said already 500mw of electricity was flowing to Bangladesh from India.
"We will see whether another 25 to 30mw can be supplied through the same existing grid to Bangladesh," he said.
Sinha also said the first phase of Rampal coal-based power plant would be set up with super-critical technology.
"This technology pollutes much less, is efficient and uses less coal," he said.
He could not categorically say about the tariff for the power to be produced at the Rampal plant. He however said the power tariff of coal-based plants in India is around Tk 6.5 to Tk 7.
"The tariff of power from Rampal plant might be a little more than that," he said.
The plant, a joint venture between Bangladesh and India, will be set up with 70 percent commercial loans from private sources.
"This 70 percent loan will determines the power tariff," Sinha said, adding that days of cheap power are getting over.
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