HASINA’S DELHI VISIT Indian cos bag $10b deals on last day [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

HASINA’S DELHI VISIT Indian cos bag $10b deals on last day

Local April 11, 2017

Indian companies signed 13 agreements and memorandums of understanding worth about $10 billion in the power, primary energy, logistics, education and medical sectors on Monday, the last day of prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi.
The deals were signed at a function titled India Bangladesh Business Forum held at Hotel Taj Palace in New Delhi.
Indian external affairs ministry, the Confederation of Indian Industry, Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry and Associated Chambers of Commerce of India jointly organised the programme, said a release issued by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
Of the 13 deals, Indian private and public sector enterprises signed at least five energy sector deals worth $7.45 billion with their Bangladeshi counterparts, according to Indian media reports.
Officials said that 237-member business delegation accompanying Hasina signed no commercial deal with their Indian counterparts to expand their business in India.
Hasina concluded her four-day official visit to India after attending the business forum and returned home Monday evening.
At the business forum, Petrobangla, the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation, signed a memorandum of understanding with India Oil Corporation to facilitate India to supply natural gas from West Bengal to its east and north-eastern provinces through Bangladesh.
Addressing the forum, India’s petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan thanked the Bangladesh government for allowing transit of petroleum products through its territory to Tripura to address the recent emergency situation in the state, reported Hindustan Times.
Bangladesh Power Development Board signed a memorandum of understanding worth $3.15 billion with India’s NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd to import 500MW power from a hydropower facility to be built in Nepal by India’s private company GMR Ltd, reported Press Trust of India on Monday.
The Indian company would transmit electricity from Nepal-India border to Bangladesh-India border, said officials.
The power board also signed a supplementary agreement with the same Indian company to import 60MW power from Palatana gas-fired power plant in Tripura to Comilla for Tk 6.45 per kilowatt-hour or unit, which Bangladeshi
experts said a ‘high price.’
India transported heavy machinery for the power plant from West Bengal to Tripura through Bangladesh paying no fees.
Bangladesh’s power division and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh signed two implementation agreements, one with India’s Adani Power (Jharkhand) Ltd for its 1,600MW coal-fired power project worth $2 billion and the other with Reliance Bangladesh LNG & Power Ltd for its 718MW gas-fired power project worth $1 billion.
The power board also initialled two power purchase agreements with the two Indian companies without any tender, said officials.
Under one agreement, Adani will sell electricity from its power plant to be installed in Jharkhand of India to the power board for 8.658 US cents per unit while Reliance will sell electricity from its power plant to be installed at Meghnaghat in Narayangaj to the power board for 7.3123 US cents per unit, said the officials.
Both the prices are higher than the recent prices offered by the Bangladesh’s local firms, they said.
Petrobangla signed two other non-binding memorandums of understanding – one with India’s state-run Petronet LNG Limited worth $1 billion and the other with Reliance worth $0.30 billion – for using their facilities to be built along the coastline of Bangladesh to import Liquefied Natural Gas, reported PTI.
Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company signed an agreement worth $1.6 billion with India’s EXIM Bank for the construction of a 1,320MW coal-fired power plant near the Sunderbans which drew widespread protests for potential harm to the world’s largest mangrove forest in Bangladesh side.
A major portion of the Indian credit will paid to Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited for construction of the power plant as the company would receive $1.49 billion for the job, said officials, adding that the entire project cost was estimated at $2 billion.
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation initialled a contract with Numaligarh Refinery Limited to import 250,000 tonnes of diesel per year paying a higher premium than the international rates.
The other memorandums signed at the forum included promotion and expansion container transportation between the two countries, cooperation in veterinary and animal science education, business education and medical facilities.