Kathmandu: The much-anticipated tripartite agreement for cross-border electricity trade involving Nepal, India, and Bangladesh has been postponed. The agreement, originally scheduled to be signed on Sunday, was halted following Bangladesh’s inability to attend due to ongoing student-led protests in the country.
Nabin Raj Singh, spokesperson for Nepal’s Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation (MoEWRI), announced that the delay was caused by the current unrest in Bangladesh. The recent nationwide protests over government job quotas have resulted in significant violence, with at least 174 fatalities reported.
The agreement was set to be signed by India’s Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Nasrul Hamid, State Minister of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources, who were both scheduled to visit Nepal for the occasion. Singh assured that a new date for the signing would be announced in the near future.
Bangladesh has shown a keen interest in importing electricity from Nepal. Initially, Nepal had agreed to export 40 megawatts of electricity daily to Bangladesh during the monsoon season, which lasts for five months each year.