Bangladesh State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has stressed the need for a dedicated transmission line between Nepal and Bangladesh via India.

“Power trade will get momentum if there is a dedicated line from Nepal to Bangladesh. This will also benefit India,” the United News of Bangladesh, a news agency, quoted Hamid as telling Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh Pranay Verma, during a meeting early this week.

Nepal and Bangladesh have never traded electricity. But the two countries are now negotiating tariffs for the export of 40MW of power from Nepal to Bangladesh via India’s existing transmission infrastructure.

But Bangladesh wants to buy more power from Nepal in line with the Himalayan country’s wish. For this, the two sides want a dedicated transmission line via India whose territory separates the two countries, and taking India on board is essential to building a dedicated power line.

But considering how India sees electricity as a strategic product, Nepali officials and experts cast serious doubt over whether India would be ready to build a dedicated line between Nepal and Bangladesh over which it will have less control.

The southern neighbour has a rule of giving project-wise approval to deny the import of power from Nepal and other neighbouring countries when there is Chinese or Pakistani involvement.

India’s reluctance to involve Nepal in building two new cross-border transmission lines on its territory was clearly visible when it proposed that the Nepal section be built by Nepal and the Indian section be built by the southern neighbour during the secretary-level 11th joint steering committee meeting in January.

Nepal had proposed to build the 400kV Inaruwa (Duhabi-Purnia, Bihar) and 400kV New Lamki (Dodhara-Bareli, Uttar Pradesh) cross-border lines through a joint venture company involving entities of the two countries.

Nepal’s proposal was to use the same model that has been adopted to build the New Butwal-Gorakhpur Cross Border Transmission Line whose India section is being built by a joint venture between the Nepal Electricity Authority and Power Grid Corporation of India.

“This shows that India does not want to involve any third country in the transmission line on its territory,” said a senior official of the NEA. “So there is a question about whether India will be flexible in building a dedicated transmission line between Nepal and Bangladesh over which it will have less control.”

The official said that both Nepal and Bangladesh have been requesting the southern neighbour to provide a dedicated cross-border power line.

“The Indian side has yet to respond to our request,” the official said, adding that a trilateral mechanism might be required to discuss the matter.

As per the Procedure for approval and facilitating ‘Import/Export (Cross Border) of Electricity by the Designated Authority’ introduced by Central Electricity Authority of India, its designated authority can approve an Indian entity to build a dedicated transmission line to connect with a substation of a neighbouring country. But it is silent on building such power lines between two neighbouring countries through Indian territories.

“I think India will look at the issue of the proposed dedicated transmission line between Nepal and Bangladesh from a strategic point of view, as it has done in overall power trade with the neighbouring countries,” Prabal Adhikari, former deputy managing director of the NEA, said in a recent interview with the Post. “It is unlikely to give up its control over the transmission line that enables trading of power between Nepal and Bangladesh.”

The two countries have identified a couple of routes for a dedicated transmission line via India. One is Anarmari (Nepal) to Panchagarh (Bangladesh), with a total length of 49km. If the transmission line is constructed, 24km Indian territory should be used, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited stated in a presentation.

Another proposed route is Anarmari (Nepal) to Thakurgaon (Bangladesh), whose length will be 83km. In order to build the transmission line along this alignment, 33km of Indian territory will be used. These routes were identified by a joint technical team of two countries.

Officials and experts said that without a dedicated transmission line, it would be difficult to export power to Bangladesh on a large scale. Due to the limited spare capacity of India’s transmission line, Nepal will be able to export only 40MW to Bangladesh once the two countries agree on a tariff.

As per the target of exporting 15,000MW of power by 2035, Nepal plans to sell 5,000MW to Bangladesh in addition to 10,000MW to India. According to the report, Bangladeshi State Minister Hamid said Bangladesh wanted to import 9,000MW of electricity from neighbouring countries.

“If Nepal gives us 3000MW–4,000MW of power right now, we can consume all the supply,” said Bangladesh Ambassador to Nepal Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury in an interaction in Lalitpur in January.

At present, the total installed capacity of power projects in operation in Nepal exceeds 2,800MW. The country, however, has an ambition to develop around 30,000MW by 2035 as it plans to sell electricity in neighbouring markets, mainly India and Bangladesh.