Petrol will also be imported through the Nepal-India cross-border petroleum pipeline within the next one and a half months. Under the Motihari-Amlekhgunj project, the Nepal Oil Corporation is currently conducting technical tests after bringing 5,500 kiloliters of petrol through the pipeline on 3 Oct.

Pralayankar Acharya, the head of the regional office in Amlekhgunj, informed that the testing work has begun following the completion of the infrastructure construction for the second phase of the Motihari-Amlekhgunj petroleum pipeline project.

All the major infrastructure construction work under the second phase has been completed,” he said. “On 3 Oct, we brought 5,500 kilometers of petrol through the pipeline for testing the effectiveness of the installed equipment. The testing will likely be completed within one and a half months, after which petrol will also be commercially transported through the pipeline, just like diesel.”

Under the second phase of the project, the construction of two petrol tanks with a capacity of 4,100 kiloliters, along with other infrastructure, has been completed. “The Corporation is intensifying the technical inspection of the equipment and infrastructure constructed under the second phase of the project. The testing of technical aspects, including the petrol tanks, motors, pumps, pipelines, and automatic petrol filling stations installed under the second phase, is also ongoing,” said Office Chief Acharya.

According to the Corporation, with the import of petrol through the pipeline, transportation costs will be reduced by approximately one billion rupees at a rate of three rupees per liter. The Corporation has also constructed infrastructure such as pump houses, modern laboratories, fire-fighting systems, oil water spray, and a PMCC room. In Amlekhgunj, the Corporation and the Indian side were given the responsibility for various infrastructure constructions. The Corporation has invested 1.54 billion rupees for the implementation of the second project, which includes the construction of a petrol tank with a capacity of 4,100 kiloliters, a modern laboratory, an upgrade of the fire-fighting system, and 24 fully automated petrol filling stations.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited was also responsible for spending 600 million rupees to construct a tank with a capacity of 4,100 kiloliters, two transmix tanks with a capacity of 250 kiloliters each, and two firewater tanks with a capacity of 3,000 kiloliters. In 2015, it was estimated that the expansion of the pipeline would cost 2.75 billion rupees for both the first and second phases. According to the plan, the Indian side was to spend 2 billion rupees in the first phase, while Nepal was to contribute 750 million rupees in the second phase.

Although 2 billion rupees were spent by India on the construction of infrastructure in the first phase, work on the second phase could not start immediately. The cost of expanding the second phase of the pipeline has increased to 1.54 billion rupees. The Corporation has stated that diesel has been imported through the pipeline since Bhadra 25, 2076 BS, after the completion of the first phase of work.

Source: kantipur