New Delhi wants to build a 765 kV transmission line to take electricity from the northeastern states of India through Bangladesh to other parts of India. It has been alleged that there is no need for the power grid of the transmission company of Bangladesh due to the technical and financial considerations in the construction of this transmission line, but it has been decided to unilaterally work through the power grid to protect the interests of India. Bangladesh will be burdened with a debt burden of 6000 to 7000 crore rupees to set up the transmission line in the Bangladesh part as required by India. Syed Masum Ahmed Chowdhury, the Additional Secretary of the Electricity Department, gave his consent in the meeting of the joint steering committee held in India from July 18 to 21 during the last period of the Sheikh Hasina government.
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 Parvatipur in Bangladesh. This initiative was taken in 2016. But there is no need for Bangladesh to set up this transmission line due to technical and financial considerations. Because about 1600 MW electricity is being imported from Adani. About 2500 megawatts of electricity will also be produced from Rooppur nuclear power plant. Separate transmission lines have been established for this. 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 transfer the excess electricity from this part of India to other parts of India. Therefore, the country has been negotiating 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 given orders 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. He appealed to many people and canceled this order of public administration.
According to a study by PGCB, the cost of laying 765 kV transmission line will be around $3 million per kilometer. About 300 kilometers of transmission line will cost 900 million or 900 million dollars; Which is over 10 thousand crores in local currency. Exim Bank of India will lend this money to establish this line for the needs of India. Bangladesh has to shoulder 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 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 unilaterally signed the initial decision alone. Although India agreed to build the transmission line from one end of India to the other end using Bangladesh as a corridor, but at the discussion meeting
This official came with the decision that PGCB will do this work. It is only an attempt to prove PGCB as bankrupt and give it to a private company, said those concerned.
Syed Masum Ahmed Chowdhury’s statement was made several times after yesterday evening but it was not possible to get any statement from him.