Nepal and Bangladesh on Wednesday agreed to sign an energy trade deal on Thursday.

A Joint Steering Committee (JSC) meeting, jointly chaired by Nepal’s Energy Secretary Suresh Acharya and Senior Secretary at the Power Division, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, of Bangladesh, decided to sign the power sales agreement between the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), Bangladesh Power Development Board and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam amid a function in Kathmandu on Thursday, the Ministry of Energy said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

As per the agreement, Bangladesh will import 40 megawatts of electricity from Nepal. The Indian side has also been involved in the trade deal as Nepal’s electricity will be transmitted to Bangladesh through the transmission infrastructure on the Indian territory. Nepal and Bangladesh are not territorially linked to each other.

Nepal is estimated to sell 144,000 MWh (megawatt-hour) electricity in five months—mid-June to mid-November—at the rate of 6.4 US cents a unit.

The Nepal-Bangladesh meeting also agreed to develop the Sunkoshi-3 hydropower project in a collaborative participatory modality between Nepal, Bangladesh and India, according to the ministry. They have decided to finalise a joint venture agreement in the next meeting.

Originally scheduled for July 28, the signing was postponed due to political tension and change of government in Bangladesh.

The two sides have also agreed to conduct a technical and financial feasibility study of the proposed cross-border transmission line for energy trade between Nepal and Bangladesh.

For now, Nepal will transmit the energy to India through the 400KV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross-border transmission line and before India transmits the equivalent to Bangladesh. The NEA will calculate the quantum of exported energy at the Mazaffarpur point. The NEA estimates an earning of around Rs330 million for the country through the sale.