India has offered an unprecedented $1 billion (about Rs 4,540 crore) line of credit to Bangladesh, the largest single amount to any country, during talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today.
Both Indian and Bangladeshi delegations were beaming at the end of the official conversation. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee described the talks as “excellent”, National Security Adviser M K N Narayanan said they had gone off “very, very well”, and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the political and economic elements of the conversation displayed a “thorough understanding of each other”.
Indian officials confirmed that Bangladesh had offered the “use” of the Chittagong port as a sea port, and that the Ashuganj port within Bangladesh (connected with the inland waterway till Kolkata) could be used to transport machinery all the way up to the Palatana power project in Tripura.
India has offered to give 250 Mw of power from the central grid as a gesture of friendliness to Bangladesh, over the 100 Mw it had committed.
