DHAKA / NEW DELHI / AGARTALA, March 23 (TIWN) : Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi have jointly inaugurated the supply of power and internet bandwidth between the countries.

Neighbouring Tripura state will supply 100 MW of power to Bangladesh district Comilla and Bangladesh will supply 100 GBPS internet bandwidth from Cox’s Bazar to India’s Agartala after the Wednesday’s inauguration.

Both prime ministers inaugurated the facilities through video-conferencing.

Bangladesh and Tripura have historically shared a special relationship as the northeastern state had given millions of Bangladeshis shelter during 1971 Liberation War.

The supply of power from Tripura is in accordance with the decision of the 7th Joint Steering Committee/Joint Working Group on Power held in Dhaka in 2014 to explore the possibility of supply of 100 MW of power from Tripura.

Bangladesh allowed the transport of over-dimensional cargo through its territory during the construction of the Palatana power plant in Tripura in 2011.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar immediately promised he would take up supply of atleast 100 MW of power to Bangladesh and lobbied wioth Delhi for the same. 

The internet bandwidth export will enable reliable and fast internet connectivity for the people of Tripura as well as the north eastern region of India.

Bangladesh and India power grids have earlier been connected with the supplying of 500 MW of power to Bangladesh through the Bahrampur-Bheramara transmission cable.

The supply of another 500 MW through the same interconnection was also announced during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Dhaka visit last year.

The agreement Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) for leasing of international bandwidth for internet was also signed then.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar also spoke at the inauguration.