Sovandeb meets Polish Ambassador to explore bilateral avenues

Kolkata: State power minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay on Tuesday held a high -level meeting with Adam Burakowski, Ambassador of Poland in India, discussing how the two countries can work together in exploring various avenues including the extraction of clean coal at a cheaper rate.

The Poland government will help the state power department with its expertise to extract clean coal which will eventually be used for generating power. The power department will form a committee comprising 4-5 members whose job will be to examine how and to what extent the project can be made viable. On the other hand, the Poland government has also formed a committee in this regard. It may also be mentioned that the state power department had signed a Memorandum-of-Understanding (MoU) with the Poland government at the Bengal Global Business Summit earlier this year to build co-operation in coal and energy sector.

"One of our main objectives is to extract clean coal in which the Poland government could provide technical assistance. Our main look out is how to extract clean coal that too at a cheaper rate. A high-level committee will be formed in this regard," Chattopadhyay said.

Both the countries will work together on issues like clean coal technology, coal mining, technology transfer etc. many of which were discussed in the meeting. The members of the committee formed by the Poland government will also examine the possibilities on how clean coal can be extracted. The power minister will also visit Poland to attend European Economic Congress from 14 to 16 May, 2018 to further strengthen this co-operation between Poland and West Bengal.

The minister will also speak on various issues related to the power sector in the state and also exhibit various projects initiated by the power department.

Poland wanted to tie up with Bengal in coal and energy sector by providing the latest technological assistance in this regard. To develop a trade relation between the two countries, a MoU was signed between the two countries. Poland has also proposed to offer scholarships to youth from Bengal who want to gain knowledge of mining engineering in their country.

Poland is known for its expertise in mining and coal sector. Experts feel that the knowledge gained by the state youth can be utilised in the state as the technical knowledge of Poland in certain areas of the power sector can be beneficial for Bengal.

Amit Mitra, the state Finance minister also held a meeting with the Ambassador of Poland to India. The meeting held at Nabanna. Pradeep Majumdar, agriculture advisor to the Chief Minister, was also present in the meeting.