Tripura pat on plan to supply power to Bangladesh.

AGARTALA: The Tripura government has welcomed the assurance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to supply 100mw power to Bangladesh's national grid from the state.

Tripura industries and commerce minister Jitendra Choudhury on Thursday said, "The state government has been persuading the Centre for a long time in this regard. Though late, it would still help further strengthen bilateral relationship between the neighbours."

Tripura recognizes the support of the people of Bangladesh to the mega power plant Palatana in south Tripura, he said.

"Unless Bangladesh allowed us to use Ashujang sea port and roads towards the Indian side by shifting the houses of commoners, market, community halls, religious places and vast cultivable land for transportation of heavy equipment, Palatana could have not come up," Choudhury said.

With the commissioning of first unit at Palatana, Tripura has appeared to be self-sufficient in power and once the second unit of Palatana and Monarchak comes up, which is expected by this year, more than 100 MW of power would be surplus.

Tripura has to sell out surplus power and in that case, transporting power from Palatana and Monarchak to Bangladesh will be easier because both projects are close to the Indo-Bangla border, he added.

Prime Minister Singh came up with the assurance at a bilateral meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina at Myanmar International Convention Center on Tuesday.

Choudhury also welcomed Singh's proposal that India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan can set up hydro-electric plants in joint ventures to solve the growing power crisis of the region.

He also appreciated Bangladesh's move in the meeting to explore enhanced connectivity with India that sought introduction of a Dhaka-Guwahati direct flight and the opening of two more deputy high commissions in Guwahati and Chennai.

He pointed out India had given duty-free and quota-free access to Bangladeshi products into its market and India is also looking for a similar benefit from Bangladesh because the bilateral trade balance of Bangladesh is heavily tilted towards India.

Records show that export of Bangladeshi goods to India totaled USD 563.96 million in the 2012-13 fiscal year against the import of USD 4,776.10 million from India, he added.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com