Bangladesh and India yesterday settled the price of electricity that Dhaka intends to import from Tripura at Tk6.43, excluding wheeling charges.
However, Bangladesh has been importing 500MW electricity from India through Bheramara since 2014 at Tk4.50 per unit.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid and Tripura’s Power Minister Manik Dey fixed the price at $0.8 per unit or 5.5 Indian rupees at a meeting in Dhaka on Saturday.
“We have decided to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA). The PPA proposal will be sent to the law ministry for vetting and then forwarded to the Cabinet committee on purchase,” Nasrul told journalists after the meeting.
Bangladesh has no binding to pay for electricity if it is not imported from Tripura, but in case of the agreement on 500MW, it has to pay for the electricity kept ready for export – even if the country does not import it, the meeting was told.
Bangladesh had allowed Tripura to use its ports to transport heavy equipment for construction of the 726MW Palatana Power Plant and India, in return, promised to give 100MW to Bangladesh from the plant.
The import is expected to start from February. It was initially scheduled to start on December 16 last year on the Victory Day but the transmission lines were not complete. The import process had run into murky waters following disagreement on the price.
A Power Division official, declining to be named, claimed importing power from India at this time was not necessary. “We have a surplus in power generation and the rate is also higher than the previous one,” he said, suggesting power import between April and May when the demand for electricity runs high.
India and Bangladesh have completed construction of transmission lines to facilitate supply of an additional 100MW electricity. A 47km transmission line from western Tripura to southern Comilla has been constructed.
The Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and the Power Generation Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) have tested the transmission lines on both sides and found them to be operational.
