Tripura to supply power to Bangladesh from Bijoy Dibosh

Tripura will start supplying power to Bangladesh from December 16, the day when that country observes Bijoy Dibosh or Victory Day when Bangladesh was created out of East Pakistan after the end of the India-Pakistan War of 1971.

A senior official of the Department of Power in Tripura said that supply of power would take place after a joint inspection with his counterpart of the progress of ongoing work of transmission line on both sides which are at the verge of completion.

"Both the Government of India and the Government of Bangladesh, including my state government, have been instructed to inspect the transmission line and see that it his activated before December 16 because it is an auspicious day in Bangladesh, that is Bangladesh Bijoy Dibosh. So, it can be operated and power can be thrown from that date and taking this mission on Bangladesh side and Indian side we are trying to do it," said M K Chowdhury, Director Technical, Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL).

Tripura had promised to export 100 MW power to Bangladesh from its share of 196 MW power from the Palatana power plant in reciprocation of Bangladesh allowing Tripura to use its ports to transport the heavy equipment for the 726MW Palatana project.

Earlier, it was impossible to bring them over the Assam-Agartala road due to several weak bridges.

Work for the 18-kilometer-long transmission line from Surajmani Nagar (in Tripura) to South Comilla (in Bangladesh) is being done by the PGCIL (Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd) at a cost of Rs.250 crores and is almost complete. Workers are doing double shifts to ensure timely completion of the project, a PGCIL official said.

M. Hazarika, GM Project NE, PGCIL said "We have to commission it by 16 December and by 10 December the work has to be complete. In four to five days, it will be ready and we shall charge it after that so that power can flow from 16 December. Keeping this in mind, work is going on in two shifts in the 18 km line right from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the evening. In this connection, I am getting all help from the state government right from the DM to Power Secretary and as well as TSECL."

On the Bangladesh side, another 47-km-long transmission line is being constructed by Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited (PGCBDL).

Meanwhile, a senior official of the PGCBDL, who led the visiting six-member Bangladeshi team that held meetings and visited various spots, said that the field level work is almost complete and now the fine tuning is going on so that the project can be commissioned from coming 16 December.

"Governments of India and Bangladesh decided to import 100 MW electric power from Tripura's Surjamuni substation to Comilla south in Bangladesh. Accordingly project was taken one year back. Now the field level work is almost complete and line is to be switched on from 16 December 2015," said Pranab Kumar Ray, Chief Engineer (Systems Operation) PGCBDL.

"We are at the last moment of commissioning of the lines, we are doing the fine tuning works and resolving the small discrepancies between the two countries we came to Tripura yesterday and daylong we sat together and all the issues are solved."

However, to finalise the rate of the power to be sold to Bangladesh, a two-day India-Bangladesh meeting will be held on November 26 in Delhi.

Tripura's Principal Secretary (Power) S K Rakesh and Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd Assistant General Manager Mahananda Debbarma are attending the meeting.