Agartala: Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy on Monday called for creating energy circuit encompassing Bangladesh, Myanmar and India’s North-East for development of the concerning areas.
Inaugurating an international seminar, ‘the present and future of natural gas: Challenges and opportunities for N-E India’ Roy said, “Our North-East and two neighbouring countries, Bangladesh and Myanmar have well reserves of natural gas. “The possibility of creating an energy circuit involving these regions should be explored for faster development”.
The seminar was organised by the Synergy For Energy Challenges and Opportunities in N-E (SECONE), an organisation funded by Indian energy companies ONGC, GAIL, IOL etc. Chairman of SECONE, P K Chowdhury, also the former Director of IOCL said, “We need regional cooperation in energy sector for development and prosperity. Bangladesh and North-East both have gas reserves which needs to be tapped in a planned way. Both have prospect and future.”
However, he is sceptical whether energy cooperation would be possible with Myanmar.
“Already China has made agreements for gas cooperation with Myanmar and build-up infrastructures for transportation of gas inside China. With the restoration of democracy in Myanmar, we can hope cooperation with India is possible,” he said.
Md. Maqbul E Elahi, former Director of Petro-bangla, who led the 12-member delegation of Bangladesh said, it has a long border with India’s north eastern region and both the areas have good reserves of gas and energy cooperation is required for the interest of both the countries. “I think both the countries are interested in energy cooperation. Now we need to find out the means and ways of cooperation. We also need to exchange expertise and information regarding the energy reserve”, he said.
Manager of ONGC, Tripura unit, S.C Soni said gas exploration was expedited in the state as the demand of natural gas is very high in the country. “We also need good investment and building up infrastructures for proper utilization of gas”, he added. (PTI)
