‘Bangladesh-India relationship a role model for the world’

Risingbd Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh-India relationship became a role model for rest of the world as it enabled the two nations to walk through the path of mutual prosperity with firm confidence.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi jointly inaugurated the construction works of two railway projects and another project regarding import of 500 MW Additional Power Supply from India to Bangladesh through Behrampore-Bheramara inter-connection.

The Bangladesh premier inaugurated the projects through video conferencing from her official residence Ganabhaban on Monday afternoon.

The Bangladesh premier was at her Ganobhaban official residence during the conference and Modi was at his office in New Delhi while chief ministers of West Bengal and Tripura Mamata Banerjee and Biplab Kumar Deb joined the conference from their respective state capitals.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali spoke on the occasion.

Two of the projects opened through the conference today were on railway sector while the rest involved the power sector cooperation under which India would export 500 MW additional power through Behrampore-Bheramara inter-connection.

The event marked the groundbreaking of Agartala-Akhaura railway link and groundbreaking for rehabilitation of Kulaura-Shahbazpur section of Bangladesh Railways.

Sheikh Hasina thanked Narendra Modi for supporting Bangladesh in its development pursuit particularly in energy and power sector which she said appeared as a crucial element of bilateral cooperation.

She said her government was building additional 55 power plants with 13,690 MW power generation capacities but “we need more energy to sustain our high economic growth”.

She pointed out that Bangladesh’s power generation capacity now exceeded 20,000 MW while it was 3,200 MW nine and a half years ago.

In the recent years, she said, the two nations witnessed remarkable progress on cooperation in a host of areas, including trade and commerce, power and energy, connectivity, infrastructure development and people-to- people contact.

“We have maintained our good ties and also ventured into new areas such as blue economy and maritime cooperation, nuclear energy, cyber security, space research and so on,” she said.

“Mutual trust, respect and goodwill have made our relations matured over the years,” she said also recalling with profound respect the crucial Indian contribution during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War led by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

“We plan to import 9,000 MW of electricity from our neighbours by 2041 under a regional cooperation framework and I hope that India will be by our side in this endeavour,” she said jointly inaugurating with Modi three projects in power and railway sectors.

Sheikh Hasina added that steps have been taken to immediately import 3,000 MW more from India as Bangladesh currently imports 660 MW from there.

The groundbreaking of the two rail projects – one on Akhaura-Agartala rail route and another on Kulaura-Shahbajpur section of Bangladesh railway — is a testimony of cooperation, Modi said.

The Indian premier highly appreciated Bangladesh premier’s proposal for resumption of the pre-1965 rail routes between the two neighbours and added India wanted to be a “proud partner” on implementing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Vision 2021 and Vision 2041.


risingbd/Dhaka/Sept 10, 2018/Saif/AI