India’s Adani Group has further reduced power supply to Bangladesh. A new 10 percent reduction is reported. As a result, a total of 60 percent of electricity was stopped from India. It was heard for some time that Adani Group is trying to collect the money owed from Bangladesh (more than 800 million dollars). Meanwhile, this news came to light.

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday (Nov 8) that the power supply had been reduced. Besides, this information has been confirmed from the electricity transmission data of Bangladesh.

Adani cut electricity supply to Bangladesh by 50 percent at the end of last month. Now they have reduced another 10 percent.

Adani Group built a 1,600 MW power plant in Jharkhand’s Godda just to send electricity to Bangladesh. The group sent 1,400 to 1,500 megawatts of electricity from this center to Bangladesh last August. But due to accumulated arrears, they reduced the supply to 700 to 750 MW in late October. And last Thursday (November 7), only 520 megawatts of electricity came to Bangladesh from Adani’s power plant.

Bangladesh Power and Energy Adviser Muhammad Fawzul Kabir Khan told news agency Reuters, “We are slowly paying the arrears. If someone cuts off the power supply, we will take alternative measures. We will not let any power supplier hold us hostage.”
An official of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) told Reuters that less power was coming from Adani despite the postponement of Adani’s arrears payment deadline and acceleration of Bangladesh’s efforts to pay its arrears.

Reuters contacted Adani about the power cuts. However, no direct response was given by the group. But an Adani source said supply has been reduced keeping in mind Bangladesh’s demand and at the same time arrears.

After the war between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, when coal prices increased, Bangladesh started struggling to pay the price of fuel. Then after the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled in the face of the mass movement, the amount of arrears increased further.

The Bangladesh power official and the Adani Group source spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because of a ban on speaking to the media.