NEW DELHI : India has initiated several measures to implement the MoUs and agreements signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh.
The deals include operationalising the supply of 100 MW of power from India, including from Palatana power plant project in Tripura to the eastern side of Bangladesh; leasing of international bandwidth for internet at Akhaura to Agartala from BSCCL Bangladesh to BSNL India, and an MOU on Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) for construction of a pipeline from Siliguri to Parbatipur for the supply of high-speed diesel to Bangladesh.
More importantly, New Delhi has extended the second Line of Credit worth $2 billion for Bangladesh for undertaking developmental projects. India will shortly be inaugurating the power connectivity between Palatana and Bangladesh as well as the leasing of the 10GB bandwidth by BSCCL from its Cox’s Bazaar internet port to BSNL, an official in the External Affairs Ministry said.
The power connectivity will take India’s already substantial cooperation in this sector with Bangladesh to a new level as it will allow the power hungry country to address severe power shortages in its south-eastern parts. “We were already supplying 500 MW of power to Bangladesh across the Beharampur- Behramara transmission link on the West Bengal-Bangladesh border and hope to enhance the supply further in due course,” said the official.
Due to the new telecom initiatives, the people of Tripura can avail more reliable internet connectivity which will improve internet speed of the entire North Eastern region, while the Bangladesh telecom operators are enabled to effectively monetise their available infrastructure.
Currently, Tripura is connected solely through the Siliguri corridor. The credit line agreement for the US$ 2 billion line of credit was signed in Dhaka on March 9, by Chairman and Managing Director of EXIM Bank of India and the Secretary, Economic Relations Department, Ministry of Finance of Bangladesh.
The signing of the agreement paves the way for initiation of projects in various identified sectors. Apart from infrastructural projects, there was a special focus on social sector cooperation pertaining to health which involves the establishment of medical colleges and hospitals, education under which there will be modernisation of two teacher training institutes and vocational training involving updation of 49 polytechnic institutes.
“This is expected to further integrate the economies of both the countries and strengthen our practical cooperation in these spheres,” the official said. The Line of Credit of US$ 2 billion is the biggest credit line India has so far extended to any country.
The first line of credit of USD 1 billion was extended to Bangladesh in 2010. “Of this, $200 million was subsequently converted into grant assistance and the line of credit was enhanced from USD 800 million to 862 million in 2015 through an amendatory agreement. So, the fact that that particular thing has been utilised well has now led us to grant the second line of credit of $2 billion,” said the official.
Numaligarh Refinery Ltd and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation are working on details for the envisaged project of supply of high-speed diesel from Numaligarh to Parbatipur, Bangladesh for a period of 20 years under a JV project between the NRL and the BPC.
The product will be transported through a pipeline of approximately 135 kms of which 130 kms will be in Bangladesh and 5 kms in India. As a goodwill gesture, an initial consignment of 2200 tonnes of diesel will be transported from Siliguri to Parbatipur by 50 wagons of Indian Railways. This train will be flagged off from Siliguri on March 17 by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan. (AGENCIES)
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