KATHMANDU, Oct 3: Nepal, India and Bangladesh have decided to sign a trilateral agreement for cross-border energy trade on Thursday, three months later than the scheduled date.
Suresh Acharya, secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation (MoEWRI), confirmed that Nepal and Bangladesh will be signing the agreement on Thursday, while a separate trilateral agreement will be signed by the two countries with India. According to him, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Interim Government of Bangladesh Syeda Rizwana Hasan on Wednesday arrived in Nepal for this purpose.
Previously, it was planned to sign the agreement on July 28, but it was postponed due to the protests in Bangladesh against the quota (reservation) system that reserves jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in the war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. Following the protests, the erstwhile Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country on August 5.
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According to an official of the MoEWRI, a meeting of the Joint Working Group, a joint-secretary level mechanism, was held on Tuesday. Likewise, the energy secretary level meeting of the Joint Secretary Committee of Nepal and Bangladesh that took place on Wednesday has prepared the draft for the agreement to be signed on Thursday.
The MoEWRI source said the bilateral meeting also discussed the possibility of promoting Bangladesh’s investment in the 683 MW Sunkoshi-3 Hydropower Project. The estimated cost of the hydropower project is US $1.45 billion.
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will be the main signatories of the bilateral agreement taking place on Thursday. Likewise, these entities of Nepal and Bangladesh will also ink an accord with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), India.
The NEA and the BPDB have already consented to carry out cross-border energy trade at the rate of 6.40 US cents per unit. Since Nepal's electricity will be delivered to Bangladesh via the Indian transmission line, the agreement for exporting the electricity will include India as well.
After the agreement is finalized, the NEA will sell 40 MW of electricity to Bangladesh for five years, from June 15 to November 15. The NEA has sought to export electricity produced from the 25 MW Trishuli and 22 MW Chilime hydropower projects to Bangladesh.
Last week, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in a meeting with Chief of the Interim Government of Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus on the sideline of the United Nations General Assembly in the US, also talked about promoting the energy trade between the two countries.
