Nepal likely to sell power to Bangladesh using Indian transmission line
India and Nepal are likely to firm up a formal arrangement to allow the Himalayan country to sell power to Bangladesh using the Indian transmission line during the official visit of Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal Prachanda beginning on May 31.
India today officially announced the four-day visit by Prachanda in what would be his first official trip to the country since assuming power in December last year.
For quite some years, both Nepal and Bangladesh are asking India to permit cross-border power trade using its transmission facility.
During her official visit to India in September last year, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had brought up with the Indian leadership the issue of importing power from Nepal and Bhutan via India, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
The matter also figured during Nepal Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud's visit to Dhaka in the middle of this month when he had urged Bangladeshi companies to invest in his country's hydropower sector.
Addressing an event in Dhaka on May 13, Saud had said Nepal was encouraged by India's recent response in facilitating cross-border power cooperation.
India and Nepal are closing in on an agreement, which may be finalised during the Nepal PM's visit, diplomatic sources said.
If finalised, the arrangement between India and Nepal on power trade with Bangladesh will be among a clutch of other bilateral agreements to be inked between New Delhi and Kathmandu during Prachanda's forthcoming visit.
The sources said the Nepal-Bangladesh power trade may make a small start which, however, would be a big step towards sub-regional cooperation in electricity sector, something both BIMSTEC and BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) are trying for several years.
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