Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina will jointly flag off the construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Product Pipeline Project through video conferencing today. Talking to AIR, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, the project will go a long way in strengthening Indo-Bangla ties.

Both countries had entered into an agreement for the pipeline construction in April this year during Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s visit to Dhaka. More from our correspondent: The 130-kilometre pipeline will connect Siliguri in West Bengal in India and Parbatipur in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh. The estimated project cost will be 346 crore rupees and it will be completed in 30 months time.

The capacity of the pipeline will be 1 million metric tons per annum. The six-kilometre Indian leg of the pipeline project will be implemented by the Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery Limited and the remaining 124 kilometres of the pipeline project will be implemented by Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation. The project will replace the existing practice of sending diesel by rail covering a distance of 510 kilometers.