Syed Masum Ahmed Chowdhury, the Additional Secretary of the Power Department, agreed to unilaterally give the electricity corridor to India, undermining the country’s interests. In the joint steering committee meeting held in India from July 18 to 21 during the last period of Sheikh Hasina’s government, he gave his sole consent in this regard. And if this agreement is implemented, the loss of Bangladesh will be about 10 thousand crores. Now Syed Masum Ahmed Chowdhury, who is very enthusiastic working in the interests of India, has been nominated as the Focal Point Officer of the Power Department to publish the white paper on corruption in the power sector. A source related to the Ministry of Power said that where he should have been reprimanded for selling the country’s interests, he has been rewarded. The patriotic officials are now questioning who actually controls the power departme
According to a responsible source in the power department, New Delhi has taken the initiative to establish a 765 KV transmission line from Barnagar in India to Katihar in the other part of India via Parbartipur in Bangladesh. This initiative was taken in 2016. But there is no need for Bangladesh to establish this transmission line due to technical and financial considerations. Because about 1,600 MW of electricity is being imported from Adani. About 2500 megawatts of electricity will also be produced from Rooppur nuclear power plant. For this, separate transmission lines have been established. As a result, there is no need to establish another transmission line in this region. And because of this, the installation of this transmission line from Bangladesh was being delayed.
Initially it was decided that India would do the work of this transmission line itself. But later Bangladesh India formed a joint company and decided to build this transmission line through that company. Such a decision was made in the meeting of the joint steering committee regarding cooperation in the electricity sector of the two countries, consisting of representatives of Bangladesh and India, in May 2023. The 21st meeting of the committee was held in Khulna. At that time it was decided that a joint electricity transmission company would be formed in partnership between transmission companies of the two countries. They will build a 765 kV (kilovolt) power transmission line from Katihar in India to Parvatipur in Bangladesh and back to Baranagar in the country.
Related sources said that due to lack of demand, the country is not able to utilize the hydropower potential of the northeastern region of India. If the electricity corridor is available, it will be easy to take the excess electricity from this part of India to other parts. Therefore, the country has been discussing this issue with Bangladesh for a long time. This electricity will mainly be produced by damming the river, so that the flow of water in the country of Bangladesh will be greatly affected, the concerned people think. According to sources concerned, some officials of the power department have always been desperate to protect India’s interests. They were always vocal in implementing the agenda of destroying the power system. One of them is Syed Masum Ahmed Chowdhury, Additional Secretary of Electricity Department. He has recently been commissioned from Public Administration as Director General of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Department from Power Department. But he is still in power department. Earlier also he was made DG of NID project. But the former electricity and energy adviser in the connection of Sylhet. It is alleged that he was able to get hold of Taufiq-e-Ilahi Chowdhury and cancel the transfer order.
According to a study by the PGCB, the cost of laying the 765 kV transmission line would be around $3 million per kilometer. 900 million or 900 million dollars will be spent on laying about 300 km of transmission lines, which is over 10 thousand crore rupees in local currency. Exim Bank of India will lend this money to establish this line for India’s needs. Bangladesh has to bear the debt.
It is known that the Bangladesh-India joint steering committee has three members from the Bangladesh side. One of them is Syed Masum Ahmed Chowdhury. Allegedly, he has been working to protect India’s interests for a long time to implement their agenda by changing the power grid transmission system (albeit detrimental to the power grid) to suit India’s needs. Ignoring the technical opinion of the Power Grid and unilaterally deciding to complete the construction of the 765 kV Barnagar (India)-Parvatipur (Bangladesh)-Katihar (India) transmission line even though there was no need for the Power Grid on technical and financial grounds, the work was done through the Power Grid in the last meeting held in India. 18-21 July in the meeting of the Joint Steering Committee (Aujhai/AudA). No technical study has been done for this. Although three members are supposed to sign on behalf of Bangladesh, he alone has signed the initial decision. Using Bangladesh as a corridor to transmit electricity from one end of India to the other end, India agreed to do this transmission line first with their own money, but this official decided that PGCB will do this work in the discussion meeting. It is only an attempt to prove PGCB as bankrupt and give it to private companies, said the stakeholders.