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India plans to export 250 megawatts (MW) of power to Bangladesh from July in a bid to strengthen strategic ties with the neighbouring country.
Bangladesh Power Development Board will receive 500MW from a newly built 125km powerline, which links Bengal’s Murshidabad district with Bheramara in Bangladesh . Part of the 500MW will come from NTPC’s Farakka power plant.
“The testing of the transmission line is being done before commissioning it. The line will be ready to export power from India to Bangladesh from July,” a senior PowerGrid official said.
The transmission line is being jointly set up by PowerGrid Corporation of India Ltd and the Power grid company of Bangladesh.
The project is estimated to cost Rs 8,220 crore, of which Rs 1,780 crore will come from PowerGrid and the rest from Bangladesh . Of the total length, around 40km falls in Bangladesh and the rest in India .
The line will have an initial transfer capacity of 500MW, which will be upgraded to 1,000MW.
The neighbours are also exploring the possibilities of further energy cooperation through joint ventures in power production and synchronising the grid to enable the evacuation of power from the northeastern region of India . Power ministry officials of the two countries have already held discussion on these matters.
Bangladesh , officials said, is keen to link its grid with India ’s Tripura and Meghalaya-Assam. This will open up opportunities for the wheeling of power from the Northeast to Bengal besides supplying Dhaka with excess power from the hydro projects in Arunachal Pradesh. The state has vast potential in hydro power and according to some estimates, it can produce 50,000 to 90,000 MW.
Source: energy bangla
