State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has sought “visible Indian cooperation” for importing hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan.

He joined a bilateral meeting on electricity cooperation between Bangladesh and India in New Delhi on Wednesday.

At the meeting, Nasrul headed the Bangladesh delegation and Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy Raj Kumar Singh led the Indian side, the Power Division said in a statement.

Indian private companies’ interest in exporting renewable energy to Bangladesh was also discussed at the meeting.

Nasrul talked about the growth of Bangladesh’s power sector and said the demand for electricity is increasing continuously in the country.

“If electricity can be imported from Assam, uninterrupted supply to northern Bangladesh can be ensured. Although we import 1,160MW of electricity from India, we want to import more,” he said.

Raj Kumar said India can supply more electricity to the northern part of Bangladesh.

Assuring cooperation regarding electricity import from Nepal, he said: “We can move forward together for the development of Bangladesh’s electricity sector.”

The issues discussed today may be further examined and decided at the next Joint Steering Committee, he added.