Insurgents operating from Bangladesh, Myanmar
Document Actions
Dhaka to Formulate Strategy on Gas Pipeline
Dhaka will hold an inter-ministerial meeting on May 16 for a strategy to get implemented its conditions on the proposed tri-nation gas pipeline from Burma to India through Bangladesh.
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
May 3, 2005
Dhaka will hold an inter-ministerial meeting on May 16 for a strategy to get implemented its conditions on the proposed tri-nation gas pipeline from Burma to India through Bangladesh.
The Commerce Minister, the State Minister for Energy Power and Mineral Resources, the Foreign Secretary and other high government officials will take part in the meeting, already okayed by Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, official sources said.
State Minister for Energy, Power and Mineral Resources, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, is hopeful about a successful outcome of the meeting.
After finalizing the strategy, Bangladesh is expected to invite Indian Oil and Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, for a discussion on the tri-nation gas pipeline project.
At a meeting of Energy Ministers of the three countries in Yangon on January 12-13, Bangladesh agreed in principle to allow its territory for laying of the pipeline, provided Delhi took steps to reduce the trade gap between India and Bangladesh and allowed Dhaka trade corridors and supply of electricity from Bhutan and Nepal.
A technical committee, comprising experts from the three countries, prepared a draft MOU on February 24-25 in Yangon where Bangladesh again made its position clear to India and Burma. India responded by asking Bangladesh to prepare specific proposals.
Burma had earlier proposed Bangladesh to sit for the MOU signing meeting on April 20-21, but Dhaka deferred the date awaiting the issues to be settled with New Delhi.
The proposed gas pipeline will start from Arakan to enter the North-East Indian states of Mizoram and Tripura. It will penetrate Bangladesh through Brahmanbaria area and run to the Rajshahi border to reach Kolkata in India.
The 181-mile pipeline will cost one billion dollars and the Bangladesh part of the construction will involve 350 million dollars. Bangladesh is expected to earn 125 million dollars a year as transit fee from both the countries, sources estimated.