India-Bangladesh Pipeline: Hasina, Modi to inaugurate it March 18
2.5 lakh tonnes of diesel will be brought in first year
The 130-kilometre India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline is set to be inaugurated on March 18, in a development that will ensure quicker and smoother supply of fuel to the northern part of the country.
The construction of the pipeline, which starts at the Numaligarh Refinery in the Indian oil and gas-rich state of Assam and ends at Parbatipur depot in Dinajpur, is complete, according to Tipu Sultan, project director of the 'India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline'.
"All preparations are complete for transporting fuel through this pipeline -- we are now waiting for the inauguration," he told The Daily Star.
The prime ministers of the two countries are scheduled to officially commission the pipeline on March 18, said ABM Azad, chairman of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.
The Indian government has built the infrastructure of the pipeline, whose construction began on September 18, 2018. "And we have allocated land for the pipeline and constructed the receiving tank," Azad said.
Once the pipeline is operational, BPC will no longer face problems in transporting oil to the northern part of the country.
In the first year, 2.5 lakh metric tons of refined diesel will be imported, with the quantity progressively getting higher, said BPC officials.
It will be possible to supply 1,000 metric tons of diesel per day to 16 districts of the northern region.
Given the pipeline's 10-inch diameter, 10 lakh metric tons of diesel can be flown in annually, they said.
Fuel supply and management through the pipeline will be modern, up-to-date and easier. There will be cost and time savings and the supply will be uninterrupted even in adverse conditions, they said.
Currently, fuel oil imported by Bangladesh is first unloaded from ships at Chattogram or Mongla ports and then transported to other parts of the country by tankers, which is time-consuming and costlier.
And in transit, oil spills from the wagons, which is harmful to the environment.
Of the pipeline's total length of 131.57 km, 126.57 km is in Bangladesh part and 5 km is in India.