Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal PM KP Oli on Tuesday jointly inaugurated South Asia’s first cross-border petroleum products pipeline that will reduce the price of petroleum in the landlocked country by Rs 2 per litre.
The work on the pipeline from Motihari in India to Amlekhgunj in Nepal was originally planned in 2015 but had to be put off due to a dip in ties between the two countries following an unannounced blockade on the Terai region of Nepal.
Work began in earnest last year after both countries resolved their differences and a test run was conducted in July.
India will now explore the possibility of building a natural gas pipeline for a fertiliser plant in Nepal.
Modi noted the turnaround in ties that led to re-initiation of the project to regular exchanges at highest political levels that “have laid down a forward-looking agenda for expanding India-Nepal partnership,” according to an official news release.
He expressed confidence that bilateral relations between India and Nepal would continue to further deepen and expand across diverse sectors.
Oli on his part expressed appreciation for early implementation of this important connectivity project, completed much ahead of schedule.
The 69-km Motihari-Amlekhgunj pipeline has a capacity of 2 million metric tonne per annum. Nepal is keen to name the pipeline ‘Ram Janaki Petroleum Pipeline’ and the christening may happen when Modi visits Nepal. During the joint video conferencing session, Modi accepted Oli’s invitation to visit Nepal.
The pipeline would wean Nepal off greater dependency on oil supplied by China. After trucks were stranded on the Indo-Nepal border, China had rushed 12 lakh litres of petroleum to Nepal.
