Dhaka: Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the cooperation between India and Bangladesh as an example for the world as he and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina jointly inaugurated the construction of a friendship pipeline project through video conferencing. The 130-km India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline Project will connect Siliguri in West Bengal in India and Parbatipur in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh.
The £34.6 million project will be completed in 30 months and the capacity of the pipeline will be one million metric tons per annum. Both countries had entered into an agreement for the pipeline construction in April this year during Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale's visit to Dhaka. Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister Modi described the cooperation between the two countries as an example for the world, according to an official statement.
He said that the two countries were neighbours, geographically and family, emotionally, it said. Modi said the proposed pipeline would further energise not just Bangladesh's economy, but also the relationship between the two countries. He said the project would boost the friendship between India and Bangladesh and the pipeline will help fulfil energy needs of Bangladesh at cheaper rates.
Through the cross-border pipeline, India will supply fuel oil from its Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL), located at Golaghat in the north-eastern state of Assam, while Bangladesh will receive the oil at Parbatipur Depot of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) in north-western district of Dinajpur, Bangladesh's state-run BSS news agency reported.
Bangladesh and India signed a MoU on April 9 last to set up the pipeline aimed at pumping Indian oil to Bangladesh with a capacity of 1 million tonnes per year, the report said. Besides the pipeline, the two leaders also inaugurated the construction of the third and fourth dual-gauge rail lines in Dhaka-Tongi section and the dual-gauge rail line in Tongi-Joydebpur section of Bangladesh Railway.
Modi said Dhaka-Tongi-Joydebpur Railway project will improve connectivity between the two countries and generate more revenue. He expressed confidence that the proposed railway project will contribute to the process of strengthening national and urban transport in Bangladesh, the statement said.
