Three months after the power supply to the country was halved, Bangladesh has asked Adani Power to fully resume supplies from its 1,600-megawatt plant in India, according to reports.
This comes three months after Adani Power Jharkhand Limited cut its power supply to Bangladesh, saying it has yet to receive outstanding bills. Since then, the country had a shortfall of over 1,600 MW. Following this, Bangladesh had to shut down one of its units on November 1, resulting in the plant operating at about 42% capacity.
However, Bangladesh official told Reuters that it has been paying off pending dues. The Bangladesh Power Development Board has been paying $85 million a month to Adani to clear outstanding dues. The plan was to restart the supply on Monday but had to postpone it due to technical issues.
"As per our requirement today, they have planned to synchronise the second unit, but due to the high vibration, it didn't happen," BPDB chairperson Md. Rezaul Karim told Reuters.
He added that the BPDB had paid $85 million per month. "Right now, we are making a payment of $85 million per month. We are trying to pay more, and our intention is to reduce the overdue. Now, there is no big issue with Adani," he added.
The BPDB had issues with Adani over the power tariffs. During halving the supply, Adani claimed that the BPBD owed the company about $900 million, while the company said at that time the amount was only about $650 million.
The disagreement was over the calculation of tariff, with the 2017 agreement pricing off an average of two indexes. The pact was signed by the Bangladeshi government when Sheikh Hasina was in power.
A Bangladesh court has ordered an examination of the contract with Adani by a committee of experts.
However, the news brought some cheer to Adani after shares of Adani Power rose 4 per cent on Tuesday. The stock climbed 4.18% to Rs 511.85 on BSE. Market cap of the firm climbed to Rs 1.92 lakh crore.
