Minister of State for Electricity, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that there is no concern about the import of electricity in Bangladesh. He said that Adani’s power plant will be commissioned on February 28. Delivery will start in the first week of March itself.

The state minister said all these things in response to a question from journalists at the secretariat on Sunday.

Nasrul Hamid said that the talk about Adani’s electricity has no basis. We will get electricity at competitive market rates. There is no doubt about it. 750 MW will come from the first unit in March. Another 750 MW of electricity will come from the second unit in April.

He said there is nothing to worry about the electricity supply in the coming irrigation and summer season. Several of our coal based power plants will come into production. Rampal has come, SS power will come, Barisal power plant will come. Import of LNG from sport market has started. Gas supply will increase. The Minister of State announced the plan to import 8 cargoes of LNG from the spot market. He rejected the demand of the traders that the new price of gas should not be implemented from February.

In 2017, Bangladesh signed an agreement to purchase electricity from Adani Group’s coal-based power plant in Godda district of Jharkhand state, India. Adani Group has set up a line for about 95 km from Jharkhand to Bangladesh border. This line passes over Malda and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal.

Recently, several farmers of Farakka in Murshidabad complained that the yield of their litchi and mango orchards was being destroyed due to the loss of power lines. Three rounds of meetings were taken after approaching the local administration regarding the issue. But all three attempts failed. On behalf of the farmers, when the human rights organization APD filed a public interest case in the Calcutta High Court on January 31, the court accepted it and summoned all the parties on February 7.