BLOG
October 28th, 2012
Via The Economic Times, a report that Bangladesh will convene a meeting with Bhutan, India over Brahmaputra basin management:
Bangladesh is convening a high level tri-partite meeting with India and Bhutan aimed at jointly utilizing the water resources of the Brahmaputra river especially for power generation, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, Tariq Karim, said today.
“Bangladesh is about to convene a meeting of Bhutan, India and Bangladesh on Brahmaputra basin management,” Karim told reporters here.
“We are all bound together by the Brahmaputra. We were separated (politically) and we are thinking at how we can cooperate in harnessing the power and force of the river.”
Describing the three countries as the ‘children’ of the mighty Brahmaputra, Karim said, “The river cannot be tamed in segments. It has to be done together, so Bangladesh and Bhutan has to participate with Meghalaya and Assam.”
Once the three countries can embark on the project, it would transform the whole region, the High Commissioner said.
He said his country was eyeing at developing a thermal power plant across the border using coal available in plenty in Meghalaya’s southern slope bordering Bangladesh by using a conveyor belt to transfer coal from Meghalaya.
Karim was accompanying Dr G Rigvi, the International Affairs Adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister when the latter called on Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma at his office.
As NEEPCO is engaged in producing 85 MW hydel power at Umiew river, and other projects coming up in Arunachal Pradesh, the grid could be used to supply power to Bangladesh, Sangma said.