Hasina, Modi to inaugurate Indo-Bangla pipeline Saturday

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will inaugurate the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline on March 18 at 5:00pm via video conference.

The first-cross border energy pipeline between the two countries has the capacity to transport one million tonnes per annum of high-speed diesel (HSD) and will supply the product initially to seven districts in northern Bangladesh, our New Delhi correspondent quoted the Indian PMO as saying today.

Of the Rs377 crore pipeline, the Bangladesh portion was built at a cost of approximately Rs285 crore with help of an Indian grant.

The operation of the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline will put in place a sustainable, reliable, cost-effective and environment-friendly mode of transporting HSD from India to Bangladesh and will further enhance cooperation in energy security between the two countries, the Indian PMO statement added.

A long-term agreement was signed in 2017 to import diesel from India to Bangladesh through the pipeline which stretches from West Bengal's Siliguri to a Meghna petroleum depot in Dinajpur's Parbatipur.

The project missed the earlier deadline of June 2022 which was pushed back another year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pipeline stretches 125km inside Bangladesh's territory and 5km inside India.

In the past, Bangladesh used railway carriages to import diesel from India.

To facilitate the pipeline construction, India withdrew its objection to Dhaka building any establishment inside 150 yards of Bangladesh territory along the zero lines, foreign minister AK Abdul Momen had said recently.