Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Senior officials of BIMSTEC member countries will meet in the capital Dhaka on Monday to finalise a draft deal on grid interconnections for electricity trade and promoting power transmission in the best possible way.
The officials of the member countries at the 5th meeting of the BIMSTEC Task Force on Trans Power Exchange and Development will have an in-depth discussion on a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the day, officials said.
BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) is a regional organisation comprising seven member states lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity. This sub-regional organisation came into being on June 6, 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration.
If the draft is finalized, the member countries -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand -- will sign the deal in the Energy Ministers Meeting likely to be held in Kathmandu in June, an foreign ministry official said.
The concept of trans-power exchange and grid interconnections for electricity among the member countries was first initiated in 2005 in India when BIMSTEC formed the taskforce.
BBN/SSR/AD-15Mar15-11:49 pm (BST)