Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina collectively inaugurate the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFP) from Siliguri (India) to Parbatipur (Bangladesh) by way of video conferencing, on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has stated that her nation’s first cross-border oil pipeline with India will play a vital role in ensuring fuel security in Bangladesh at a time when the world was dealing with a critical power disaster because of the Ukraine struggle.
Ms. Hasina stated this whereas just about inaugurating with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi the 131.5-km Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline’ on March 19.
Terming India a “true friend” of Bangladesh, Ms. Hasina stated she needed this friendship to stay intact.
The pipeline costing ₹377 crore is a part of power sector cooperation between the 2 neighbouring nations by means of which Bangladesh will import petroleum, particularly diesel from India.
“When many countries across the world are on the verge of a fuel crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war at that time this pipeline will play a vital role in ensuring the fuel security of our people,” Ms. Hasina stated.
“The friendship pipeline is a milestone achievement in cooperation for the development between the two friendly countries,” she stated.
“Apart from ensuring fuel security, the pipeline will increase economic growth,” she said.
Ms. Hasina said the time and expenditure for importing diesel from India will be reduced significantly by this pipeline.
“We have settled all our bilateral problems one by one… We are getting cooperation for our development from India,” she was quoted as saying by the state-run United News of Bangladesh.
“We’re importing 1160MW of power from India. Some more regional and bilateral initiatives in the power sector are under implementation. Our cooperation to this end will be deep-rooted in the days to come,” she added.
“We will work collectively in the nationwide and worldwide area. The historic and geographical bond will additional consolidate the relations between Bangladesh and India,” she said.
Ms. Hasina also invited Indian investors to invest in her country. Mr. Modi also spoke at the event joining from his office.
He said the pipeline will start a new chapter in India-Bangladesh relations. “The pipeline will help sooner growth of Bangladesh and will be a wonderful instance of accelerating connectivity between the 2 nations,” he stated.
The pipeline will run from the Siliguri-based advertising terminal of the Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) to the Parbatipur depot of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).
According to the deal, India will ship 200,000 tonnes of oil yearly in the primary three years, 300,000 tonnes every year in the following three years, 500,000 tonnes yearly in the following 4 years and 1 million tonnes yearly afterwards, bdnews24.com reported.
The pipeline with India will minimize the transportation price of fuel oil for Bangladesh by 50%, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid stated earlier.
