Agartala: Export of 100 MW power from Palatana plant of South Tripura to Bangladesh and import of 10 Gbps internet bandwidth are scheduled to begin on March 23 after online joint inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina. Officials on Monday said that both the Prime Minister’s office has cleared the schedule of inauguration of the projects through video conferencing from New Delhi and Dhaka where Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar will also join them from Agartala.
The ministry of power has approved transmission line between Suryamaninagar of Agartala and South Comilla grid of Bangladesh after multi-level checking in the network last month informed the ministry. Similarly, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) have jointly built India’s third international internet gateway after Chennai and Mumbai and connected it to 10 Gbps bandwidth at Akhaura Checkpost of Agartala in January.
Completion of the projects in due time, the inauguration was delayed as both the prime ministers could not manage time to launch these here, said a senior official here, adding that finally the formal launching programme was decided through video conferencing. Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on July 11 last year laid the foundation stone for the third international internet gateway (IIG) through Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. The Indian government has spent Rs 20 crore to create the infrastructure, including laying of OFC, to avail the 10 gigabit bandwidth from Bangladesh. Moreover, India has to give around Rs 8 crore per year as rental fee to BSCCL to avail the telecommunication linkages to make Northeast India as gateway of South-East Asian nations via Bangladesh.
India is also building railway link between Agartala and Bangladesh and constructing a bridge in South Tripura to get access to Chittagong sea port. Tripura Power Minister Manik Dey said that 726 MW capacity gas based world biggest clean development mechanism power project came up in South Tripura only because Bangladesh allowed to use Ashuganj port for transporting over dimensional cargos for the project and the state emerged as one of the biggest power surplus state in India.
