‘Bangladesh, Nepal, India power trade agreement in final stage’

Business Desk :
The proposed tripartite (Bangladesh, India, and Nepal) power trade pact is in the final stage, Nepal’s ambassador to India Shankar Prasad Sharma has said.

Sharma said the agreement is in the “final stage”.

He added: “But any time, we can have the meeting and agree on these areas.

But I’m sure because when three countries are involved and this is the first time [it is] being done in South Asia – a tripartite agreement and the implementation of the electricity grid – there could be many things that may arise.”

The envoy pointed out that the implementation of the pact may take some more time since India and Bangladesh currently “don’t have spare transmission capacity”.

He said, “We’ll probably also need to talk and plan about the transmission capacity between India and Bangladesh.”

“Bangladesh is also interested in having investments in Nepal to import electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh, either with their investment or the investment done by other countries.”

During Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s visit to New Delhi in June, he and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi unveiled plans for India to facilitate the export of hydropower from Nepal to Bangladesh, according to Hindustan Times.

Dahal said a beginning will be made by exporting 50 MW, and officials have noted that there is a potential for this to be ramped up once the agreement is in place.