An agreement to sell 40 MW of electricity to Bangladesh will be signed on July 13

Nepal's Energy Minister Deepak Khadka, India's Electricity Minister Manohar Lal and Bangladesh's Minister of State for Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid will sign the power purchase and sale agreement, said Navinraj Singh, spokesperson of the ministry. "There will be a 40 megawatt power sale agreement (PSA) in Kathmandu in the presence of the ministers," he said.

About 6 years after the agreement between Nepal and Bangladesh on energy cooperation, the electricity export is about to take its final shape. The Authority will sell to Bangladesh for 5 months of rainy season i.e. from 15th June to 15th 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 (about Rs 8.55 paise, as per Wednesday's exchange rate) per unit for selling power to Bangladesh. According to the authority, the income will be 92 million 16 thousand US dollars (1 billion 23 million, 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 in India. In other words, 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 itself. 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 the electricity produced by the 25 MW Trishuli and 22 MW Chilime hydropower project built by its subsidiary company and built with Indian subsidy to Bangladesh. Both these projects have received approval for power export in India.

Bangladesh wrote a letter to the authority on June 24 last year to sign an agreement for the purchase and sale of 40 megawatts of electricity. On 16 December 2008, BPDB invited tenders for the purchase of 40 megawatts of electricity produced by Nepal for a period of five years as per the tripartite agreement between the entities of Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

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. After that, 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 reduction in the price offered by Nepal.

Nepal has been selling electricity to India at a rate of Rs 5 25 paisa (Rs 8 4 paisa) per unit according to the mid-term agreement. In terms of Indian rupees, Nepal is going to sell electricity to Bangladesh at 5 rupees 31 paisa (8 rupees 49 paisa) per unit, according to the authority. Although there was an agreement on the price, only on May 29, the Committee on Public Procurement (CCGP) of the Cabinet of Bangladesh approved the price of electricity to be imported from Nepal.

BPDB notified the authority on June 24 of its intention to accept the bid, informing that the submitted bid documents had been evaluated and approved by the relevant agency. The authority also gave a written notice to BPDB that the bid was accepted. Soon after, BPDB sent the draft power sale agreement to the authority. After receiving the draft, the authority has fixed the contract date and sent a letter to BPDB with an invitation on Wednesday.

The Economic Affairs Committee of the Cabinet of Bangladesh approved in principle the proposal to import 40 megawatts of electricity from Nepal on December 20. Accordingly, Bangladesh had sent a letter to Nepal to send a proposal for sale by prioritizing the price. The authority sent the sale proposal in the second week of January.