NEW DELHI: In two significant developments on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina jointly inaugurated three Indo-Bangla power and rail projects, while the Ministry of External Affairs signed a pact to establish a pan-African educational and medical e-network.
In the morning, the MEA signed an agreement with Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd to launch the e-VidyaBharati and e-ArogyaBharati Network Project, which aims to link select Indian universities, institutions and hospitals to African educational institutions and hospitals.
Speaking on the occasion, attended by several Indian officials, including Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha and several senior African diplomats, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the project “aims at putting India’s knowledge and technical expertise at the service of our African partners.”
Asserting that “our government has put Africa at the top of India’s foreign policy priorities,” she described the project as “yet another bridge - a digital bridge - between our countries, shrinking the distance between India and Africa even more.”
Later in the afternoon, Modi in New Delhi and Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka jointly inaugurated three key projects—a power project and two rail projects—in Bangladesh via a video conference, which was also addressed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tripura Chief Minister Biplob Kumar Deb from Kolkata and Agartala, respectively. Modi expressed the hope that the projects would further enhance ties between the two countries.
The projects
1. The projects involve supplying 500 MW to Bangladesh from West Bengal’s Baharampur grid
2. The two rail projects involve building railway infrastructure in Bangladesh