Rampal foundation plaque unveiled

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh jointly unveiled the foundation plaque of the coal-based Rampal power plant this morning disregarding environmentalists’ fear of a disastrous impact on the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest.Manmohan joined Hasina through video conferencing to uncover the plaque at Bheramara in Kushtia though the power plant site is located at Rampal in Bagerhat, 14 kilometres away from the Sundarbans.The Bheramara site was chosen as the two premiers formally inaugurated the commercial start of electricity import from India at the Bangladesh-India Power Transmission Centre.Bangladesh and India had inked a deal on April 20 to set up the 1,320MW coal-fired power plant, a project that drew flak from environmentalists and eminent citizens, who believe it will jeopardise the Sundarbans.To oppose and demand scrapping of the project, hundreds of people marched from Dhaka to the Rampal project site in last week of September.The demonstration seems to have failed to move the authorities.During his speech Saturday, Manmohan called upon the Bangladesh authorities to maintain environmental standards while constructing the plant saying that the Sundarbans is the common heritage of the two neighbouring countries.Originally, Hasina was scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Rampal plant on October 22 and Manmohan was supposed to join through video conferencing. The schedule was changed as the Indian premier expressed inability to join the programme that day.About importing power from India, Manmohan said Saturday the transmission line in Bheramara provides a safe and reliable interconnection of the power grids of the two countries which will be able to supply 500MW of power from India to Bangladesh.The Indian premier termed the power export as “a shared aspiration of both the countrymen” which has been “translated into a concrete outcome”.The India-Bangladesh grid interconnection would not only link the grid but also would strengthen the bonds of the friendship between the two countries, he said.“The initiatives being undertaken today strengthen the bonds of friendship between India and Bangladesh and add a rich dimension to our bilateral relation.“Today’s inauguration represents an important milestone in connecting our two countries and the broader region through a growing wave of cross-border energy links and trade,” he added.Prior to the inauguration, Hasina also said that the initiative of sharing power would help strengthen the relationship between the two countries.“Such co-operation would pave the way to embark on more ambitious project to the benefit of both the countries,” she said.“The inter-grid connectivity is a part of immediate solution which would go a long way to alleviate the power deficit Bangladesh,” Hasina noted.Under the 2010 agreement, India will export 500MW of electricity everyday to Bangladesh for 35 years from a substation at Baharampur in West Bengal.A 125-kilometre transmission line, 40km of it in Bangladesh, connects the two substations.India began the test supply with 50MW electricity on September 27. From Saturday, it went up to 250MW every day and will reach 500MW in end-November.