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3,000mw Power Plant

Nepal offers partnership

Seeks transit from Mongla Port

Staff Correspondent
Nepal yesterday proposed setting up a 3,000-megawatt power plant in its territory in a joint venture with Bangladesh.
Nepalese Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun made the proposal at a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith at the latter's secretariat office.
Kathmandu also requested Dhaka for transit from Mongla to Banglabandha land port in Panchagarh district.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Muhith said Nepal was willing to export power to Bangladesh, but for that to happen, Dhaka would need to be an equity partner in a joint-venture plant in the Himalayan country.
Nepal has huge resources for hydropower, but its potentials remain untapped for lack of investment, he observed.
According to the Nepalese government, the country's total hydropower potential is 83.000MW, of which 42,000MW is economically exploitable.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, produces 5,000MW of electricity, which can cover only half of its 16 crore population, according to the Power Development Board. Faced with acute power shortage, the Bangladesh government has been thinking of setting up jointventure plants in Bhutan as well.
Apart from power projects, yesterday's meeting focused on the issue of transit to India, Nepal and Bhutan.
Muhith said Kathmandu had requested Dhaka to allow its trucks to ply between Banglabandha and Mongla. Currently, trucks from Nepal are allowed to travel up to 200 kilometres inside Bangladesh.
Last month, a core committee formed to make recommendations on the transit issue submitted its report to the commerce ministry. The three neighbouring countries to be given the facility will be charged a flat-rate transit fee on the basis of recommendations made in the report, Muhith said.
He added that some concessions might be offered to low-income countries.
The core committee's report will be sent to the three countries and transit fees and other issues will be settled through discussions with them.
Muhith also said the tenure of a water transit protocol signed with India would expire in March and Bangladesh would try to finalise the transit fees before that. Otherwise, the protocol's tenure would be extended as per previous terms.
However, the transit fees that Bangladesh now charges India will be increased.
The finance minister said there was no bar to giving India transit through Ashuganj, but infrastructure should be improved for that to happen.
His Nepalese counterpart arrived in Dhaka on January 29 to attend the Saarc finance ministers' meeting.