Shillong 27, Oct: Power starved Bangladesh is looking towards India and Bhutan to tap the mighty Brahmaputra river for harnessing power and meet its energy requirement. With this objective, Bangladesh is convening a meeting of the three countries on Brahmaputra Basin Management.
Bangladesh Prime Minister’ adviser Dr. Gowher Rizvi accompanied by Bangladesh high commissioner to India Tariq A Karim met Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma Saturday to speak about the possibility of cooperation in various sectors including generation of power.
Speaking about the potentiality that exist in generating power from the mighty Brahmaputra Karim said,“We- India, Bangladesh and Bhutan- are bound together and are the children of the Brahmaputra and we are thinking of how we can cooperate in harnessing the power of this mighty river as well as harnessing the munificence of this river.”
Karim felt that a river cannot be harnessed in segments, it has to be done together
and unless Bangladesh participates with Meghalaya and Assam –India- and Bhutan it cannot harness the power potentiality of Brahmaputra lone as this is a big project that requires the participation of all the three nations which will transform the entire region.
On the other hand Sangma told reporters after the meeting that this meeting is in continuation to various engagements that the Government of Meghalaya and the Government of India has been jointly taking up with Bangladesh.
Beside talking about power potential that the Brahmaputra holds for the three countries, discussion was also held on various areas of cooperation between Bangladesh and Meghalaya. At least five or six areas were identified on Saturday.
On the power sector discussion was held on the possibility of cooperation between Meghalaya and Bangladesh in the power sector by linking the grids between Meghalaya and Bangladesh near Cherrapunjee in a stretch that is only 10 kms in length.
Karim also said, “We have also talked about increasing the number of border haats and food, spices processing and we are trying to get our entrepreneurs together in a meet either here in Meghalaya or in Bangladesh. We have also talked about potentials that exist in increasing and harnessing bamboo cultivation to make a project which will be eco – friendly as well as meet a lot of our other needs such as low cost housing.”
Talks were also held on the possibility of Shillong being a tourist and educational
destination for the people of Bangladesh.- By Our Reporter
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