Power imports from India started with the inauguration of the Bangladesh-India Power Transmission Centre and Bheramara 360 Combined Cycle Power Plant on Saturday.
Published : 05 Oct 2013, 12:54 PM
The premiers of the two countries also unveiled the plaque of the 1320MW coal-fired Rampal power plant amid howls of protests from activists who say it will adversely impact on the ecology of the Sundarbans.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian power minister Farooqe Abdullah attended the inauguration ceremony at Kushtia while the Indian premier Manmohan Singh spoke through video conference from New Delhi.
The power is being imported under a memorandum of understanding signed during Hasina’s 2010 Delhi visit.
The inauguration started to add 175MW power from India to the Bangladesh National Grid.
By the end of October around 250MW of power will be imported from India and another 250MW is expected by November.
Officials of the Power Development Board (PDB) believe power shortage faced by Bangladesh will somewhat ease once 500 MW flows into the national grid from India.
Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina highlighted her government's initiatives in the power sector and stressed the need of Awami Leauge to return to power to maintain the momentum.
"In our election manifesto, we pledged to end the acute scarcity of electricity the country faced at that time. At the fag end of our term, we can boldly claim we have kept our commitments."
"With your help and co-operation, we would be able to build a poverty- and hunger-free Bangladesh, modern and secular, by 2021. That is when we celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Independence and by then we should be a middle-income country," said Hasina.
Power generation was at 3,200MW per day when the Awami League took office and now it is 6,675MW, she said.
But the installed capacity has crossed 9000 MW.
The Prime Minister said that 57 power plants have been commissioned during the last four and a half years, 33 more are under-construction and tenders are being floated for another 19 power plants.
"Nearly 62 percent people have been brought under electricity coverage. The revenue income has increased through reducing system loss."
The government has opted for coal-based power generation as gas reserve of the country is limited, said Hasina, adding that environmental issues have been kept in mind while implementing such projects.
She also revealed of on-going discussions to import power from Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who joined the ceremony through video conference, lauded the progress Bangladesh has made under Sheikh Hasina's leadership."The initiative we took during your [Hasina] historic visit to India in January 2010 is being realised today."
He assured that India would remain "a steadfast and long-term partner" in Bangladesh's development efforts.