Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to finance this pipeline with a capacity of one million metric tons per year in his meeting with Hasina in 2017. file | Photo credit: VV Krishnan
The ambitious 130-km long India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL), built at a cost of Rs 377.08 crore, is likely to be commissioned next month, official sources said on Sunday.
The international oil pipeline, IBFPL, will carry fuel from Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) marketing terminal at Siliguri in West Bengal to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s (BPC) Parbatipur depot.
A senior NRL official told PTI on condition of anonymity that the mechanical works of the India-funded bilateral project were completed on December 12 last year.
“We have targeted to complete the commissioning in February 2023,” he added.
The ground breaking ceremony for the 130 km IBFPL was conducted in September 2018 in the presence of the Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh through video conferencing.
Another senior executive of Northeast’s largest refiner said, “The project is truly an engineering marvel. We faced many hurdles, but with mutual cooperation and technical understanding between the two countries, this international project will see the light of the day.” ” ,
He said that the IBFPL has been successfully implemented because of the true friendship between India and Bangladesh and will remain as a testimony to the best relations between the two South Asian countries.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to finance this pipeline with a capacity of one million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) in his meeting with Hasina in 2017.
The total project cost of construction of IBFPL is ₹377.08 crore. Of this, NRL’s investment is Rs 91.84 crore for the India portion of the pipeline, while the remaining Rs 285.24 crore for the Bangladesh portion is being funded by the Government of India as grant-in-aid.
Bangladesh will start importing gas and oil from NRL later this year, according to a recent report prepared by the Assam Assembly on the visit of a delegation of legislators to the neighboring country.
The delegation met Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who said that “import of fuel oil from India through pipeline” would begin this year.
“She said that Bangladesh wanted to import oil from India through the pipeline…The 130 km long India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL) project aims to export oil products from India to Bangladesh,” the report said.
NRL and BPC entered into a long-term agreement in April 2017 to sell High Speed Diesel (HSD) from India to Bangladesh through IBFPL.
Later in October the same year, state-run NRL signed another 15-year agreement with BPC for export of gas oil (diesel) to the neighboring country.
In NRL, Oil India Limited holds 69.63% stake, while the Government of Assam and Engineers India Limited hold 26% and 4.37%, respectively.