AMN /
Bangladesh is set to receive 2200 tonnes of diesel from India further boosting energy co-operation between the two neighbouring countries. The consignment was flagged off by Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas at Siliguri yesterday, and will be received by the Bangladesh State Minister for Power & Energy Nasrul Hamid tomorrow .
Sources in Indian High commission in Dhaka said fifty wagons of Indian railways are transporting the diesel from Numaligarh Refinery Ltd’s marketing depot in Siliguri to Bangladesh’s Parbatipur petroleum product storage depot in bordering Dinajpur as a ‘goodwill shipment’.
In April last year, India and Bangladesh agreed to install a 135-km cross-border pipeline to help Dhaka import 10 lakh tonnes of diesel from India annually under a joint venture India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline.
Pending the completion of the pipeline, petroleum products have to be transported by railways, as import of petroleum through river routes has currently been stopped. This is the first time that Bangladesh has imported petroleum products from India through tortuous railway route from Siliguri to Parbatipur via Malda in West Bengal.
