India, Nepal inaugurate Motihari-Amlekhgunj oil pipeline

Kathmandu: India and Nepal on Tuesday inaugurated the Motihari-Amlekhgunj oil pipeline, the first ever cross-border petroleum products link in South Asia, that will help the landlocked Himalayan nation to meet its energy demands and reduce the cost of fuel transportation.

The Motihari-Amlekhgunj oil pipeline was jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli via a video link.

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Government officials in Nepal say the over 60-km long petroleum pipeline will now be used to supply diesel from Bihar's Motihari city in the first phase. The government has made necessary arrangement for the Nepal Army to provide security to the pipeline on their side of the border.

Currently, tankers carry petroleum products from India to Nepal as part of an arrangement which is in place since 1973.

The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) hopes to save Rs 2 billion annually in freight of petroleum products. It is also expected to save millions of rupees extra by reducing the leakage of petroleum products, media reported.

The Motihari-Amlekhgunj oil pipeline project was first proposed in 1996. However, the project finally edged closer to reality during Prime Minister Modi's visit to Kathmandu in 2014.

The two governments had inked an agreement to execute the project in August 2015. However, the project construction was delayed following the 2015 earthquake in Nepal and supply obstruction along the southern border. The project construction works finally began in April last year.

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(PTI)