6 May 2016

BBIN Initiatives: Options for Cross-Border Power Exchange

MAHENDRA LAMA 
APR 25 2016 


International borders are key to any cooperation in the sub-region of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN). This sub-region — once integrated as a powerful geographiceconomic entity and eventually disintegrating because of various politico-historical reasons — is now venturing to reintegrate. The challenge is to recognise borders as 'borderlands', where there exists an intrinsic interplay of natural resources, cultures, societies, trade and commerce, tourism, technology, roads, and communications. This demands a significant deviation from the orthodox treatment of borders as venues for military security. A critical area that shows potential is cross-border energy trading. Today there are fairly successful interconnection experiments in this area, as well as institutional linkages, buoyed by a considerable degree of political will. This paper describes the potentials of energy trading within BBIN.

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