Indo-Bangla pipeline for diesel import

Bangladesh and India have agreed to install a 130-kilometre long cross-border pipeline to help Dhaka import 10 lakh tonnes of diesel from the neighbouring country annually, officials said.  
Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) of India and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this end on Monday.
The 'Indo-Bangla Friendship Pipeline' will be set up between NRL's marketing terminal in Siliguri and BPC's depot in Parbatipur to ensure smooth supply of diesel to the northern districts of Bangladesh. 
This pipeline will help reduce the carrying costs of the petroleum products, an official of the BPC said, adding that the cost of diesel to be imported from India would be less than what current suppliers charge here.
The pipeline will have a capacity to carry one million tonnes of diesel per year. Only seven kilometres of the pipeline will be on the Indian side and the rest will be on the Bangladesh side.  
It will take two years to complete the installation work. A joint venture of the state-run BPC and NRL, a subsidiary of the state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, will complete the tasks. 
The BPC official, who declined to be named, said both sides had agreed to set up the headquarters of the joint venture in Dhaka. The company will be formed this year. 
Bruno Ekka, NRL's general manager for marketing and business development, and Mustafa Qudrat-I-Elahi, BPC's general manager for planning and development, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective companies. 
Abubakar Siddique, energy secretary of Bangladesh, P Padmanabhan, managing director of NRL and AM Badrudduja, chairman of BPC, were present at the signing ceremony in Dhaka. 
Bangladesh last imported diesel from India through river routes in 2007, but the amount was very small. The import of petroleum product through the river routes has stopped afterwards. 
But discussions are underway to resume diesel import by water vessels until the pipeline is installed, the BPC official said.   
Bangladesh now imports petroleum products from around 10 countries.