In the first week of June 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on a two-day official visit to Bangladesh. That was his first visit to the neighbouring country as the PM.
The text of the Indian PM's statement in the joint press briefing by the two leaders stated, “we can do more together in the power sector, here and in India.”
On June 7, 2015, it was first reported that two Indian private companies, Adani Power Limited (APL) and Reliance Power Limited, had signed separate Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with BPDB for a combined investment of $5.5 billion to set up power projects in Bangladesh.
Subsequently, Reliance Power said it had decided to set up a gas-based power plant in Bangladesh with an installed capacity of 3,000 MW with an investment of $3 billion, while Adani Power announced it would set up a 1,600 MW coal-fired plant by investing $2.5 billion.
At that stage it was reported that another MoU relating to “Adani's export of power from a coal power plant in India to Bangladesh” had been dropped at the last moment.
On June 10, 2015, the Indian right-wing think tank Vivekananda International Foundation, which is closely associated with PM Narendra Modi's ruling party, the BJP, and its ideological parent the RSS reviewed the Indian PM's visit to Bangladesh in a lengthy blog and stated that “close on the heels of the PM's visit, two major Indian private-sector firms have already announced plans to set up thermal and gas-based plants in Bangladesh that would give a major boost to power production in the country.”
Between June and August, however, this changed.
On June 9 that year, in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, APL said that it had no information on news reports on APL signing an MoU with BPDB.
According to the PPA eventually signed by the BPDB and APL subsidiary Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited (APJL) in November 2017, an MoU was signed between the two parties on August 11, 2015 for APL to set up a 1,600 MW coal-power plant at a suitable location in India to supply electricity to Bangladesh.
APL incorporated a subsidiary, Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited, on December 18, 2015. Two months later, on February 18, 2016, APL submitted “an unsolicited techno-commercial proposal” about the proposed plant in Jharkhand to BPDB.
In May 2016, APL requested the Jharkhand government to allocate around 1,000 hectares of land in ten villages in the Godda district for the project.
The then BJP-ruled state government, in March 2017, informed the company that it would acquire 917 acres comprising six villages. Thus started the project.