Bangladesh's Rs 161 crore-unpaid electricity bill to Tripura

Bangladesh owes Rs 161 crore to Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) in unpaid electricity bills and the matter has been raised with the Centre, state Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath said on Tuesday. 

Power Minister Nath said that the TSECL is currently supplying 70 to 80 MW of electricity daily to Bangladesh, which has been facing severe electricity shortages to feed its consumers.

“For supplying electricity to Bangladesh the outstanding payment increased to Rs 161 crore. To clear the pending payment we approached the NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) and the central agency in turn asked Bangladesh to make the due payment,” Nath told the media.

The NVVN is the nodal agency to supply power to Bangladesh from the Tripura power project and collect payments for this purpose, the Minister said.

He said that despite the huge outstanding payments, the TSECL would continue to supply electricity to the neighbouring country.

Tripura started supplying 100 MW of power to Bangladesh from the state-owned ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC) power plant in March 2016. The power supply sometimes increased it to 160 MW.

"After the first agreement in 2016, we subsequently renewed the agreement twice to continue the supply of electricity to Bangladesh," a TSECL official said.

He said that the Bangladesh government recently requested the TSECL to supply at least 250 MW of electricity to their country as they have a huge shortage of power to meet the growing demand of consumers.

“Discussions are going on. But to increase the supply of electricity, the Central government’s permission and clearances are vital, requiring signing of an agreement and to fulfil other formalities,” the official said.

He said that in 2020 the TSECL had supplied 40 MW of electricity to Nepal. However, the supply has been discontinued as Nepal did not approach the Indian authorities afresh.

The TSECL official said that electricity is being supplied to Bangladesh and most of the northeastern states from the 726 MW generation capacity OTPC gas-based power plant in southern Tripura's Palatana, 65 km south of Agartala.

The OTPC, a joint venture company of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd, IDFC Bank and the Tripura government, set up the 726-MW project at Palatana in June 2013.

The OTPC's combined cycle power plant, the largest gas-based power plant in the northeast, is meeting around 35 per cent of the power requirement of seven northeastern states, excluding Sikkim, the official claimed.

The Rs 10,000 crore Palatana power plant is a unique example of the cooperation between New Delhi and Dhaka, which ensured the passage of heavy project equipment and turbines to Palatana in southern Tripura through Bangladesh territory.