Patna,(BiharTimes): India on Monday agreed to lay a pipeline from East Champaran in Bihar to Kathmandu for supply of petrol, diesel and jet fuel (ATF) to the Himalayan republic.
A joint Press statement issued after the two-day visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kathmandu said that India had agreed to Nepal’s request to take up the construction of petroleum pipeline from East Champaran district of Bihar to Amlekhgunj in Nepal in the first phase and extend it to Kathmandu in the next phase.
As Nepal is dependent on India for meeting all its fuel requirement, including LPG, at present they are trucked from the depot of Indian Oil Corporation in Raxaul in East Champaran.
It needs to be recalled that in 2006, a 41-km pipeline from Raxaul to Amlekhgunj in Nepal was proposed for transportation of the fuel. The pipeline was to be funded 50:50 by IOC and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC).
However, it never took off as Nepal refused to fund its share of cost. Meanwhile, the IOC has decided to shift its oil storage depot from the bordering town of Raxaul to Motihari, the district headquarters of East Champaran. Thus the original point of the pipeline too may have to be shifted to Motihari.
Motihari-Amlekhgunj pipeline will be about 81-kms long and cost Rs 200 crore.
Officials estimate that the Raxaul-Amlekhgunj project was to cost about Rs 100 crore excluding the cost of land acquisition and the new line would cost almost double amount.