Bhupen Goswami

 Guwahati: The 130-km-long India-Bangladesh friendship pipeline will be commissioned in the month of February. The Indo-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline will carry fuel from Numaligarh Refinery Limited marketing terminal in Assam to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s Parbatipur depot in Siliguri, West Bengal.

A senior official of Numaligarh Refinery Limited said that in the bilateral meeting of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and PM Modi, the two countries had signed seven agreements in September 2022 last year. He said that cooperation between the people of the two countries in this regard is continuously improving. Trade between the two countries is growing rapidly. We have decided to enhance cooperation in IT, space and nuclear sectors. Talks are also underway on power transmission lines between India and Bangladesh.In 2017, the Government of India had announced its intention to finance this pipeline with a capacity of one million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA).

The India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline was constructed at a total cost of Rs 377.08 crore. Of this, NRL’s investment is Rs 91.84 crore for India’s share of the pipeline, while the remaining Rs 285.24 crore is being funded by the Government of India as grant assistance for Bangladesh’s share. Bangladesh will start importing gas and oil from NRL later this year, the report said.