India and Bangladesh hold discussion on issues related to Maitree Power project

Secretary (Power), Govt of Bangladesh assured of the necessary support for completion of the project in time and appreciated the progress made by the project so far, despite the COVID constraints since last year.

Secretary (Power) Govt of India met Secretary (Power) Govt of Bangladesh today through video conferencing for the issues related to the 1320MW Maitree Power project. This meeting was convened shortly after the 8th High-Level Monitoring Committee meeting held on 17.06.2021 during which certain critical issues were identified that required to be addressed for timely commissioning of unit#1 in December 2021.

The meeting was attended by senior officials including the officials from the Ministry of Power (MoP), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), High Commissioner of India in Bangladesh, Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), Central Electricity Authority (CEA), NTPC Ltd. BHEL and BIFPCL.

The COVID situation since March 2020 has presented enough challenges to the people of both countries and have affected the implementation of the Maitree project and both sides are putting in the best effort to complete the project in time. The Bangladesh side was assured that BHEL and BIFPCL are confident to meet the timelines, with the support of Govt of Bangladesh in the matter of Entry Permission and VISA approvals for Highly skilled ex-pat manpower from India, Customs related Issues / Imposition of Advance Income Tax (AIT) after latest SRO 126, Court Case against BHEL employees posted at Maitree Site & in offices in India and Vaccination of workforce.

The project is an environmentally friendly supercritical technology-based thermal power plant, and the first unit of this project would be commissioned in December'2021 i.e. coinciding with the Golden Jubilee celebration of Victory Day of Bangladesh and Unit#2 is expected to be commissioned matching with the implementation of the associated transmission system.

Secretary (Power), Govt of Bangladesh assured of the necessary support for completion of the project in time and appreciated the progress made by the project so far, despite the COVID constraints since last year.

Both sides also discussed the date of the meeting of the next JWG /JSC for the India-Bangladesh Cooperation in Power Sector. It has been decided to hold JWG/JSC meeting in the 3rd week of September 2021.

Secretary (Power) Govt of India thanked the Bangladesh side and expressed gratitude for the support committed by Secretary (Power) Govt of Bangladesh.

(With Inputs from PIB)