Hydroelectricity import from Nepal, Butan: India agrees to provide corridor
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India has agreed to provide a corridor to enable Bangladesh to import hydro-electricity from Nepal and Bhutan, foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen said on Wednesday while briefing the media on after the foreign office consultations between Bangladesh and India.
However, during the meeting the Indian side, led by Indian foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra, pointed out that Bangladesh should strengthen its power transmission network and capacity to use this corridor properly, the foreign secretary said.
“The Indian side said, we can help you to bring the power from Nepal and India upto the Indi-Bangladesh border, but it will not benefit you if your transmission line remain weak” the foreign secretary mentioned.
In response to query in this regard, the foreign secretary said that they will convey the Indian observation to the concerned line ministry so that the work for constructing transmission lines in both sides can go on simultaneously.
Bangladesh side mentioned that both India and Bangladesh could work together to strengthen the transmission capacity and network.
He also noted that when such a project is taken up, that can also be included in the Indian line of credit.
The meeting also discussed the progress of the energy pipeline between India and Bangladesh, through which Bangladesh will import diesel from India, and India will transmit fuel from one northern province to another via Bangladesh.
During the meeting, Bangladesh urged India to resolve pending issues like the signing of the water-sharing deal on the Teesta river, removing the non-tariff barriers for Bangladeshi products, and stopping border killing.
About the Teesta deal, the Indian side said that solution to this issue lies with the state of West Bengal, but from the center they will try their best to make it happen.
About the border killing, the Indian side said that they also don’t want the death of a single Bangladeshi on the border and they’re trying to bring down the border killing 20 level
In this regard, they also stressed the need for more collaboration between the border security forces of the two countries so that the criminal activities along the border can be prevented.
In the meeting, but the countries agreed to expedite the process for signing the comprehensive economic partnership agreement.
The meeting also discussed issues related to Rohingya crisis and India has assured Bangladesh to provide an all kind of cooperation to expedite the repatriation process, the Bangladesh, foreign secretary said.
Responding to a question he said that the issue related to import power from Adani group was not separately discussed in the meeting.
As a whole, we have discussed strengthening the cooperation in power and energy sector between the two countries so that the agreements we have signed can be implemented in due time, he added.
Responding to another question, foreign secretary also said that during the discussion any issue related to the next general election in Bangladesh was not raised by the Indian side.