Dhaka, Delhi meet on power trade tomorrow

Bangladesh and India are set to conduct the 20th Joint Working Group (JWG) and Joint Steering Committee (JSC) meeting tomorrow (Friday) at Himachal, India to finalise power trade between the two countries through various interconnections and discuss Indian LOC projects.
Habibur Rahman, Secretary, Power Division will leave Dhaka today with a nine member delegation team to conduct the meetings to be held in 27-31 May in India.
"In the last meeting, Bangladesh and India underscored boosting sub regional cooperation in energy with Bhutan and Nepal. India emphasized that finalization of regulations and guidelines for cross-border trade in electricity would increase sub regional cooperation. India requested early finalization of modalities for implementation of the Katihar - Parbotipur - Bornagar cross border electricity interconnection, these issues will be discussed. However, status of 1320 MW Maitree Super Thermal Power Project, Rampal," Power Cell DG Mohammad Hossain told the Daily Observer on Wednesday.
According to him the first two days will be designated for the JWC meeting and later the Steering committee will finalise the issues discussed by the JWC.
The 19th meeting of the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) on India Bangladesh cooperation in the energy sector was held in Dhaka last year.
The India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline and unit-1 of the Maitree Super Thermal Power Project, speedy execution of projects under the Indian Lines of Credit will be discussed in the meeting.
Power Divisional officials said the India funded fast-track mega project is Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant, which is expected to come into operation by June 2022. Other India-funded infrastructure projects are also facing delays and upward cost revisions.
"The Indian-financed 100 MW solar park near the river Jamuna in Jamalpur district will be discussed there, the federal government will provide $131 million of soft loans for a $177 million project, solar park, originally planned for the Bagerhat district in the southwest of Bangladesh but was moved on ecological grounds because bodies of water on that site would have had to be landfilled to make way for the panels," official said.
"India looks forward to a stronger sub-regional cooperation on connectivity and energy sector and other areas. Particularly, the hydropower domain offers an opportunity for mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries in the region," Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the media during his recent visit to Bangladesh. Jaishankar has said India will take lead in structuring partnership for production, transmission and trade of energy, especially hydropower, between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal.
S Jaishankar pushed expansion of cross-border energy and connectivity ties with Bangladesh during his visit to Dhaka. He also met PM Sheikh Hasina to hand over an invitation from PM Narendra Modi for a visit that is expected to take place in July.
The present transmission links for 400 kV D/C between Baharampur (India) and Bheramara (Bangladesh) via Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL) and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited (PGCB) and another 400kV (operated at 132kV) interconnection exits between Surajmaninagar (Tripura) in India to Comilla in Bangladesh allow the exchange of power between the two countries.
Also, a 765kV Double Circuit cross-border electricity interconnection between Katihar (India), Parbotipur (Bangladesh), and Bornagar (India) is currently under development which will further increase the scope for power trade. All these issues will be discussed in the next four days, officials said.