The Hindu Business Line : SAARC to look at energy trade potential of the region

ENERGY COOPERATION: The Union Power Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde, with (from left) the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resource, Pakistan, Mr Amannullah Khan Jadoon; the Advisor, Ministry of Power, Environment and Water Resources, Bangladesh, Mr Tapan Chowdhury; the Minister for Trade and Industry, Bhutan, Mr Lyompo Yeshey Zimba; and the Minster for Power and Energy, Sri Lanka, Mr W.D.J. Seneviratne, at the SAARC Energy Ministers' meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday. — S. Subramanium

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New Delhi March 7 The Energy Ministers of the SAARC countries have approved the commissioning of a comprehensive study on possibilities of trade in energy resources in the region. The study is expected to give greater confidence to prospective investors in energy projects in the South Asia region.

Inaugurating the event, the Power Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde, said that visible progress was emerging in energy cooperation within the SAARC region and suggested the approach of developing country-to-country grid interconnections as building blocks for making electricity flow across the region feasible.

India has operational grid interconnections with Nepal and Bhutan. To expand this further, technical studies are under way on feasibility of grid interconnections with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Pointing out the dependency of the region on import of oil and gas to meet energy needs, the Minister called for accelerated efforts for the development of gas pipelines within and also outside the region.

He said this should be done simultaneously with the electricity grid.

Energy demands

The Minister also emphasised on the need for private investment in energy projects in view of the growing energy demands which cannot be met by the public sector alone.

Referring to the success with tariff-based bidding for two ultra mega power projects of 4,000 MW each recently, he suggested replicating the model not only for energy sector projects but also for other infrastructure projects for mobilising large private sector investments and providing critical infrastructure at competitive rates.