Transmission Line: Nepal can now use transmission line in India
Nepal yesterday got New Delhi's green signal for selling power to Bangladesh using the Indian transmission line, giving a boost to sub-regional cooperation in power trading.
The agreement was reached during talks between visiting Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in New Delhi, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
"Our objective is to send 40 megawatts of power from Nepal to Bangladesh transiting through the Indian grid," Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra told the media.
"There is an excellent opportunity to use power and power trade as a very important instrument of strengthening regional connectivity. This is the first effort in that direction," he added.
Nepal and Bangladesh have been pressing India to allow the power trade in recent years and were waiting for the green signal from New Delhi.
In August 2022, Bangladesh and Nepal decided to request India to allow the export of 40-50 MW of electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh in the initial phase by utilising the high-voltage Baharampur-Bheramara cross-border power transmission link.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also raised the issue of importing power from Nepal and Bhutan through India during her official visit to New Delhi last September.
The matter was also raised during Nepal Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud's visit to Dhaka in mid-May when he urged Bangladeshi companies to invest in his country's hydropower sector.
As Nepal and Bangladesh do not share borders and India lies between the two countries, the trade needed India's approval to commence.
Experts say the Nepal-Bangladesh power trade may make a small start which, however, would be a big step towards sub-regional cooperation in the electricity sector, something both BIMSTEC and BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) are trying for several years.
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