Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the commercial transmission of power imported from India on October 5.
Her Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury disclosed this at a press conference organised by the Power Division at Bidyut Bhaban in the city on Wednesday.
He said India’s state-owned National Thermal Power Company (NTPC) looks set to start the test transmission of electricity to Bangladesh on September 27, sending 50MW to the grid on the first day and raising it to 175MW by September 30.
The Power Development Board signed a supplementary agreement with the NTPC on September 18 on payment of Tk35.9m in advance for the trial transmission, which will be adjusted to the project cost later.
The cost of per kilowatt electricity from India is expected to be Tk4 and Tk0.80 as wheeling charge. The Power Grid Company will charge the PDB Tk0.23 per unit.
Dhaka and New Delhi signed a memorandum of understanding to import 500MW of electricity in January 2010 during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India.
The NTPC and the Power Trading Corporation India Limited (PTC) will supply 250MW each.
Bangladesh was supposed to get 250MW of electricity from India in July 2013, but the deadline was missed because of the delay in setting up of transmission line on the Indian side.
On July 28, the cabinet committee on public purchase approved the import of 250MW electricity from India’s open market. The PTC will supply electricity for three years from power plants in West Bengal and the eastern region at a rate of Tk6.34 with Tk0.31 wheeling charge.
