The construction of infrastructure for importing petrol and kerosene through the Motihari-Amlekhganj petroleum pipeline has reached its final stage.

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have also started the infrastructure construction work required to supply petrol and kerosene through pipelines at Amlekhganj depot.

Pradeep Kumar Yadav, Head of Madhesh Regional Office of NOC, has said that the infrastructure construction work required for importing petrol and kerosene from Motihari-Amlekhganj petroleum pipeline is in the final stage. He said that for the storage of petrol and kerosene to be supplied through the pipeline, expansion of storage capacity at Amlekhganj depot, construction of labs and automatic machines, the budget are being spent in three areas.

Yadav mentioned that out of four billion rupees to be spent on the work of supplying petrol and kerosene through the pipeline, IOC will give one billion rupees and NOC will spend three billion rupees.

Currently, only diesel is being supplied through the Nepal-India inter-country petroleum pipeline from Motihari in Bihar, India to Amlekhganj in Nepal.

Yadav said that after the start of the supply of petrol and kerosene through the pipeline from Motihari in Bihar, India to Amlekhganj in Nepal, there will be an annual saving of 1.80 billion rupees.

Similarly, He said that the expansion of storage capacity, construction of labs and work of auto machines under construction at Amlekhganj depot will be completed by February 2024 and the target will be supply of petrol and kerosene through the pipeline.

He said that two petrol tanks with a capacity of 4100 kilo liters, two transmix tanks with a capacity of 250 kilo liters, 24 fully automatic loading ways (refillers) for petrol transportation, a pump house and a laboratory are being constructed at Amlekhganj depot of NOC.

Likewise, Yadav also said that upgrading of firefighting system, WS system for separating water and oil and construction of PMCC room are also underway. He said that Likhita Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, which has taken the contract for the construction of necessary infrastructure at Amlekhganj depot for petrol and kerosene storage, is working to complete the construction by mid-February 2024.

Although it is possible to import diesel, petrol and kerosene through the same pipeline, only diesel was being imported due to the lack of storage capacity in the Amlekhganj depot. Since only diesel was being supplied through the pipeline, petrol and kerosene had to be transported from Barauni in Bihar to Amlekhganj by tankers.

“Now all the three petroleum products namely petrol, diesel and kerosene are going to be imported through the pipeline. With this, the number of tankers being used for import from Amlekhganj to Barauni as well as the technical loss will be zero, the transportation cost will be saved and it will help in reducing environmental pollution,” said Yadav.

Yadav said that after the completion of the works conducted at the Amlekhganj depot, it is estimated that NOC will save Rs 3.8 billion annually from the petroleum products coming from the pipeline.

Since only 70 percent of the diesel required for Nepal is supplied through the pipeline, NOC has been saving two billion annually. Petroleum products can be supplied up to three liters per hour through the pipeline.

It is said that after the expansion of the storage capacity at Amlekhganj depot, the storage capacity of diesel will reach 24,840 kilo liters and the storage capacity of petrol will reach 16,630 kilo liters.

On September 9, 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Delhi and Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli jointly inaugurated the 69 km long Motihari-Amlekhganj international petroleum pipeline by switching a press from Kathmandu.

NOC is saving one to one rupee 50 paisa per liter of diesel while importing diesel through the pipeline.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to Nepal in 2014, announced that IOC will build a pipeline with subsidies for petroleum products to be supplied from India to Nepal.