By enhancing capacity of power grids connecting Bangladesh and India, the government has taken an initiative to import 500 more megawatts (MW) of electricity from India by June 2018.

"A project 'Enhancing Capacity of Existing Bangladesh (Bheramara)-India (Bahorompur) Grid Interconnection (500MW)' is under implementation," State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told the news agency.

The government will construct a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) station having a capacity of 500MW under the project, which will require two years, he said.

Currently Bangladesh is importing 500MW from India, he added.

He said the government had set a target to generate 24,000MW of electricity by 2021, and 40,000MW by 2030 aimed at providing electricity to every citizen.

According to a ministry official, the government has a plan for achieving energy efficiency in the near future by implementing all mega projects. However, load shedding was almost an everyday phenomenon a few years ago to the utter sufferings of all people across the country, but today electricity failure is seldom seen anywhere in both urban and rural areas.

The government has already provided power connection to around 3 crore people by introducing 42,000km of new lines and capacity enhancement by 1,798MW in the last two years (2014 to 2015), he said.

The government has set a target to generate 24,000MW of electricity, 53 percent of which will be sourced from coal, within "Vision 2021". With this end in view, he said, the government increased the number of power plants, transmission lines and distribution lines for rapid economic growth to help Bangladesh become a middle income country by 2021.