Bangladesh is weighing an Indian proposal to construct a gas pipeline through Bangladesh to connect India's West Bengal and Tripura states, a government minister said.
India made the proposal to Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan during his recent visit to New Delhi and Calcutta, officials said.
"The proposed pipeline will be primarily used by India to take a supply of natural gas from Myanmar while Bangladesh can also use it to transmit natural gas from the country's eastern fields to western regions," the State Minister for Energy, A.K.M. Mosharraf Hossain, told Reuters on Sunday.
Mosharraf said the government would earn revenue of nearly $125 million a year if the pipeline was built.
Mosharraf said the $150 million project would require a careful and detail study and was subject to the approval of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia.
India has been planning the 290 km (180 mile) pipeline for years without a response from Bangladesh. It came up again at talks last week between Khan and India's Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Bangladesh refuses to sell natural gas to India, despite pressure from foreign donors and energy companies, arguing it must first ensure it has enough reserves to meet domestic demand for at least 50 years.
Sale of gas is a sensitive political issues and may trigger a huge opposition backlash.
But Bangladesh was not totally opposed to the Myanmar-India pipeline over its territory if it offered a "win-win" situation for both Dhaka and New Delhi, officials said.
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