Govt to import 500MW of power from Tripura

The government yesterday approved a Tk 1,342-crore project to set up a high-voltage sub-station in Comilla in order to import 500 megawatts of electricity from Tripura, India.

The approval came at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the NEC conference room in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.

The Asian Development Bank will provide Tk 1,019.79 crore for the project, the government Tk 252.51 crore and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) Tk 69.96 crore.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the imported power would be passed on to the national grid through the station. Bangladesh will import 500MW from Tripura due to a shortage of power and in future Bangladesh may export power to India through the station when its generation is in the surplus.

For this reason, the back-to-back station will be set up to keep the export option open, Kamal added.

The transmission line from Tripura to Comilla will be set up entirely with the government funds.

PGCB will implement the project between July 2018 and June 2022.

Currently, Bangladesh imports 160MW of power from Tripura.