Bangladesh will pay over Tk 6 for each unit or kilowatt-hour of electricity to be imported from India. The cost of electricity has been estimated to open letters of credit for the payment of imported electricity to Indian state-run power authority NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam, a Power Development Board official told New Age. The cost of the Indian public sector electricity, however, will be finalised at a meeting with the Indian power authority scheduled for Wednesday, the official said.
The state-run Power Development Board will import 250MW of power from Indian central government’s unallocated quota, the official said.
Recently, the Bangladesh government also approved a power board proposal to import 250MW more electricity from an Indian private firm, PTC India Limited, at Tk 6.35 a unit.
The power board will also pay about Tk 0.35 for each unit of electricity as wheeling charge to the concerned power transmission company in Indian side.
Bangladesh, however, now spends Tk 5 on an average to produce each unit of electricity.
The power board official said that the NVVN would start test transmission of power to Bangladesh on September 23 and that of commercial transmission in the middle of October.
The power board has estimated to open an LC worth Tk 230 crore approximately in Indian currency to import 250MW of power from Indian public sector, officials said.
Opening a LC for the price of electricity to be imported in three months is a mandatory part of the contract with Indian authority, said a power board official, adding that the LC should be opened one month before the beginning of commercial power transmission.
He said that the Indian power authority had also asked the Bangladesh authorities to pay for the electricity to be imported between September 23 and middle of October on trial basis.
‘We have asked the Bangladesh and Indian authorities concerned to start commercial transmission of 500MW power by October although the power purchase/sales agreement now awaits vetting of the law ministry,’ the official said.
PTC India Limited will supply electricity to Bangladesh for three years from Indian’s NTPC power plants in West Bengal and Eastern Region.
In February, the Power Development Board signed a power purchase agreement with NVVN to import 250MW of electricity from Indian unallocated quota.
Bangladesh has completed laying a 29 kilometre high-voltage interconnectivity transmission line at Bheramara in Kustia in Bangladesh while India has completed laying a 74 kilometre transmission line in its part, officials said.
-With New Age input
