The tripartite agreement regarding the sale of 40 megawatts of electricity by Nepal to Bangladesh has been postponed for the time being. The agreement was suspended after protests against special reservation in government services intensified in Bangladesh. Nepal, India and Bangladesh were expected to sign an agreement on July 13.

Navinraj Singh, spokesperson of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, said that Bangladesh had sent a letter to postpone the date of the agreement. "They said that we will confirm the new date," he said. Earlier, Nepal's Energy Minister Deepak Khadka, India's Electricity Minister Manohar Lal and Bangladesh's Minister of State for Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul 

In the presence of Hamid, it was said that the contract for the purchase and sale of electricity would be signed. Soon after, it was decided to hold joint secretary level and secretary level meeting of Nepal and Bangladesh in Pokhara.

There was a nationwide demonstration against the provision of special reservation in government services for the children and relatives of those who participated in the 1971 independence movement of Bangladesh. More than 150 people died in violent clashes during the demonstration. Even though the Supreme Court canceled the special reservation law on Tuesday, the situation has not returned to normal yet. 

The electricity authority has an agreement to sell electricity to Bangladesh for 5 months of the rainy season, i.e. from 15 June to 15 November every year. 

A total of 144,000 megawatt hours of electricity will be exported in 5 months every year. The authority will get 6.40 US cents per unit (about 8 rupees 55 paise, according to Wednesday's exchange rate) for selling power to Bangladesh. According to the authority, the income will be 92 million 16 thousand US dollars (1 billion 23  crores, according to Wednesday's exchange rate) in 5 months.

The authority will get the price of electricity exported to Bangladesh through the first international Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur 400 kV transmission line between Nepal and India at the Muzaffarpur point of India.

i.e. the meter of electricity exported to Bangladesh will be in Muzaffarpur. Technical leakage of transmission line from Dhalkebar to Muzaffarpur will be borne by the Authority. From Muzaffarpur through India's transmission line, electricity will reach Bangladesh through Behrampur (India)-Bhedamara (Bangladesh) 400 kV transmission line. 

The Authority has prepared to export electricity to Bangladesh produced by the 25 MW Trishuli and 22 MW Chilime Hydropower Project, built with Indian subsidy and owned by its subsidiary company. Both these projects have received approval for power export in India.

BPDB had called for a tender for the purchase of 40 megawatts of electricity produced from Nepal on 16th December 2008 as per the tripartite agreement between the bodies of Bangladesh, India and Nepal for a period of five years. The Authority had submitted the tender document with the rate of electricity to be sold in the prescribed format for the sale of electricity in the second week of January. Then there was a discussion between the authority's team and the bid evaluation committee under BPDB in Dhaka on February 10. 

Nepal proposed a price of 6.70 US cents per unit of electricity. The meeting did not reach an agreement on the price after Nepal took a stand that it would not be sold to India at a lower price. But later, in the bilateral discussion held during the SAARC energy secretary-level meeting organized by the World Bank in Singapore, Bangladesh agreed to purchase electricity at 6.40 US cents, with a slight decrease in the price offered by Nepal. Although the price was agreed upon, only on May 29, the Committee on Public Procurement (CCGP) of the Council of Ministers of Bangladesh approved the price of electricity to be imported from Nepal.