Kathmandu, Oct 4 (Representative) Nepal, India and Bangladesh signed a long-awaited tripartite agreement on Thursday, paving the way for Nepal to export hydroelectricity to Bangladesh via India. Nepal will export 40 megawatts of power to Bangladesh in the rainy season. The deal, signed in Kathmandu on Thursday, allows Nepal to sell electricity to a third country for the first time. So far, Nepal’s energy trade has been taking place only with India. The agreement was signed by Kulman Ghising, executive director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), Renu Narang, CEO of India’s NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), and Mohammad Rezaul Karim, chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board amid a function in Kathmandu. The signing took place in the presence of Nepal’s Energy Minister Dipak Khadka and Bangladesh’s Minister for Forest, Environment, Climate Change, and Water Resources Syeda Rizwana Hasan, MyRepublica reported.
The agreement was supposed to be signed on July 28, but was postponed due to the quota protests in Bangladesh, which led to the erstwhile Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country on August 5. power to India’s NVVN which the Indian company will transmit to Bangladesh by using Indian infrastructure. The power shall be exported through the 400 KV capacity cross-border transmission line between Nepal and India. The NEA is preparing to export 25 megawatts of power from Trishuli Hydropower Project and 22 megawatts from Chilime Hydropower Project. The NEA has already received approval from the Indian side to export power from these two projects.
The NEA shall export power to Bangladesh for five months beginning June 15 to November 15 during the monsoon season. As agreed, 144,000 megawatts hour power will be exported during the five months. According to the NEA, power will be sold at Rs 9.30 per unit. As per the agreement, the NEA will begin to export power within some days. Meanwhile, the joint directorate committee’s meeting of the secretary-level of Nepal and Bangladesh held on Wednesday agreed to develop Sunkoshi Hydropower Project-III in partnership with Nepal, Bangladesh and India. The meeting decided that an agreement would be finalized soon and to develop the project by establishing a joint venture company in partnership with NEA and Bangladesh’s Power Development Board. Similarly, a process to sign a deal between NEA and Bangladesh’s Power Development Board for the development of Sunkoshi Reservoir-based Hydropower Project with a capacity of 680 megawatts of electricity has been initiated.