NTPC Ltd.

NTPC Ltd's trading arm has been given the mandate to carry out cross border electricity trade between India and Bangladesh. NTPC Vidyut Vypar Nigam Ltd. (NVVN), the state-owned power major's trading arm, will sign a power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) shortly. This will mark NTPC's entry into the area of cross country electricity trading, where the market leader in the country's power trading business, PTC India Ltd, already has a head start.

The transmission lines between India and Bangladesh are being set up under a pact signed between Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd and BPDB in July last year. The links are expected to be in place by early 2013 and are being executed at a cost of $192 million (around Rs 907 crore), with a capacity to wheel around 500 MW.