Plans to import 250 MW of power from India are not likely to materialise during the present tenure of the Awami League, as the Indian side is not ready to transmit power to Bangladesh within the next two or three months. “The Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI) has failed to install a 400-KV power transmission tower in Berhampore of India. However, Bangladesh has completed all preparations to import power and is ready for a connectivity test-run,” said a senior official of the Power Development Board.
According to sources, the process to import power from India is being delayed as the PGCI has failed to procure or acquire only three decimals of land to install the tower during the last one and a half years. “PGCI officials have said they will go to court to evacuate the required land after the local government polls in West Bengal,” the official added.
Earlier, the PGCI had attributed the delay to the West Bengal state government’s reluctance to show the green light for the project.
Power division sources said the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh had started to set up a USD 107 million power sub-station at Bheramara in Kushtia, and that a power transmission line, worth USD 15 million, would be linked from India’s Berhampore to the sub-station, so that it could add 250 MW of power to the national grid by 2013.
“Yes, it’s true. At that time, it was said that PGCI officials selected private land to set up the sub-station. Though the private owners were ready, the West Bengal government argued with the PGCI that if it allowed the purchase at such a high rate, it would have implications over land purchase for other projects,” the official told The Independent.
It may be mentioned that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a memorandum of understanding for power trade in January 2010.
-With The Independent input
