Nepal to seek India’s approval for dedicated transmission line to export electricity to Bangladesh

kathmandu : In a bid to expedite cross-border electricity trade, Nepal is looking forward to constructing a dedicated transmission line via Indian land to supply its hydroelectricity to Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is likely to forward the proposal to India during his visit to the southern neighbor to be held in near future, according to officials of the Investment Board Nepal (IBN). Dahal is most likely to embark on a state visit to India before mid-April.

Prime Minister Dahal expressed his concern as he paid a visit to the IBN office on Friday. While gathering the information on the ongoing progress of hydropower projects in particular, he focused more on the 756 MW Tamor Reservoir Hydropower Project, 480 MW Phukot Karnali and Nepal-India transmission line to supply Nepali electricity to Bangladesh.

Nepal has been looking forward to selling its surplus energy to India, while Bangladesh has also come up as a long term potential buyer of electricity from the Himalayan country. Nepal Electricity Authority says it is also waiting for approval from the Indian authorities to export 40-50 MW of electricity to Bangladesh through India's existing transmission infrastructure. In the recently held meeting of the Nepal-India Energy Secretary-level joint steering committee, India has agreed to submit a proposal for exporting 50 megawatts of electricity generated from Nepal's hydropower projects to Bangladesh with certain conditions.

Although India has turned flexible to some extent, there is still a lot of homework needed to be done in order to materialize the plan to carry out cross-border electricity trade in progressive manner, says experts of the sector.  

Energy experts time and again have been expressing their skeptical views over Indian policy allowing Nepali to export its surplus energy to Bangladesh. Former Finance Minister Shankar Prasad Koirala said the government needs to put forth the issue clearly before Indian authority, if it wants to go aggressively on the cross-border energy trade.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dahal held discussions with the IBN officials over the progress of Arun-III and Lower Arun Hydropower Project, Hongshi Cement, West Seti Storage Project, Seti River-6 semi-reservoir project, Upper Karnali Hydropower Project, Upper Marsyangdi-2 and Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project. He also expressed his interest to ink agreements with India to expedite big hydropower projects which are already registered by the IBN.