How India Kept Power Supply Flowing to Support Bangladesh

May 20, 2026

Despite the political upheaval in Bangladesh with the overthrow of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024 and ‘anti-India’ rhetoric launched by the new regime, what stands out is that there was no disruption in the power supply from India to the neighbouring country through the cross border infrastructure built over the years.

The two countries had spent years constructing an energy partnership — pipelines, power grids, joint infrastructure — that had become loadbearing for Bangladesh’s economy. The concern was whether a sudden political realignment in Dhaka would put all of it at risk. Through September 2024, as political communication between New Delhi and Dhaka entered a difficult phase and administrative processes, including visa normalisation, slowed, India’s power exports to Bangladesh continued at virtually unchanged levels.

It cites official data from India’s National Load Despatch Centre on September 18, 2024, recording nearly 47.7 million units of electricity supplied to Bangladesh in a single day which showed how deep link between the two countries’ energy systems held even as the political relationship navigated turbulence.

The reason why this energy link did not break is that the “India–Bangladesh power relationship had, by 2024, moved well past the point where it depended on the goodwill of particular leaders or the warmth of any given diplomatic moment”. It was embedded in long-term agreements, technical coordination mechanisms between grid operators, and interconnected infrastructure whose suspension would have imposed immediate and serious costs on both sides.

Bangladesh’s factories, hospitals, and urban power networks had come to depend on imported Indian electricity as a baseline of supply. India’s grid operators had corresponding obligations and commercial arrangements.It highlights that the system had its own momentum — institutional, contractual, and operational — that was not easily interrupted by political weather. Bangladesh was already managing a fragile economic situation: foreign exchange reserves under pressure, fuel import costs elevated, and public confidence in institutions not yet fully restored after the political transition.