Amid anti-India sentiment, Bangladesh clears all electricity dues to Tripura

Agartala: Amid the political volatility and anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh, the country has cleared all the pending electricity bills of Tripura.

Tripura shares an 856 km-long international border with Bangladesh, which is the second-longest border after West Bengal.

Earlier in 2024, reports said that Bangladesh owed Tripura Rs 200 crore in pending electricity dues, but no decision was made on suspending power supply to the neighbouring country.

Currently, Tripura supplies between 60 and 70 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh under an agreement facilitated by the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) through the NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) with the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

Speaking with Business North East (BNE), Tripura Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath said that the neighbouring country has cleared all the pending dues.

“Tripura is a power surplus state, and since 2016, we have been selling power to Bangladesh. Around Rs 200 crore was pending in bills. We had an agreement to sell power to Bangladesh. We can't sell power to Bangladesh directly or take the money ourselves. We have to do this through NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited. However, now no dues are pending—they have cleared all,” he said.

The minister has informed that Tripura was supposed to supply around 110 megawatts of power to Bangladesh, but is currently distributing 60–70 megawatts to the neighbouring country.

Initially, the agreement was signed among the parties—TSECL, NVVN, and BPDB (Bangladesh Power Development Board)—for a quantum of 100 MW of power in March 2016, which was subsequently extended to 160 MW.

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TSECL has a total capacity of over 587 MW from stations like Palatana, Monarchak, Gomuti Hydro-electric Project, Baramura Gas Thermal Power Station, and Rokhia Gas Thermal Power Station, and during the daytime, around 8 MW of power is also generated from solar within the state.

In addition to this, it has diesel-based generating units of 1 MW, which have been operational since pre-independence.

Recently, Tripura has undertaken a series of projects and signed a memorandum at the recently held regional power conference in Sikkim.