Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Indian firms keen to invest $10b in power, energy sector:Daily Sun

  Several Indian firms have shown interest to invest $10 billion in power and energy sector of Bangladesh, said state minister for power and energy Nasrul Hamid. The junior minister made the disclosure to newsmen after holding a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran at his secretariat office in Dhaka on Tuesday. The Indian companies that have expressed their keenness to invest in the
country’ energy sector include Reliance Group, Hiranandini Group, Ambani Group and ONGC. Besides, Indian authorities have shown positive response to Bangladesh’s electricity import from Nepal through using their national grid, the state minister added. Talking to daily sun, Pankaj Saran said India supports regional electricity exchange as well as generation and transmission with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. “Bangladesh is on right track’ to create favorable investment environment,” the Indian envoy said. During the meeting with Nasrul, Pankaj said Indian multinational firms are interested to invest in Bangladesh taking the advantage on favorable political and investment climate here. Praising the present government, he said that Bangladesh has achieved tremendous economic development during the last five years. The Indian envoy also requested the state minister to expedite implementation of Indian projects like oil pipeline between Bangladesh and Indian Tripura state. About the outcome of the meeting, Nasrul said the Indian government has expressed its interest to supply 100MW of electricity from Tripura by December this year. Besides, they also shown positive response to supply of additional 500MW of electricity to Bangladesh, he said. India is now supplying 470MW through Baharampur and Bheramara inter-grid connectivity. The Indian envoy met the state minister for power and energy at a time when Bangladesh is set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nepal today. Nasrul said that India has responded positively to hydroelectricity sharing with Nepal and as well as joint venture move. Power division secretary Monowar Islam and energy and mineral resources division secretary Abu Bakar Siddique were also present during the meeting.

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