India to lay Chittagong -Tripura gas pipeline : Petroleum Minister
07 August, Agartala
The Central government has requested it’s Bangladesh counterpart to allow laying a pipeline for carrying natural gas from Chittagong to Tripura to meet the crisis of cooking gas (LPG) in North-eastern region, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said here Monday.
Talking to media in sideline of launching Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) by distributing LPG connection to 20 below poverty line (BPL) families of a total 3.35 lakh poor families, Pradhan said, “We are laying a pipeline for transportation of diesel from Siliguri of West Bengal to Parvatipur in Bangladesh. There is pipeline for carrying diesel from Numaligarh oil refinery in Assam to Siliguri.”
The Ministry of Petroleum has mooted a proposal to erect a gas pipeline from Chittagong to Tripura as an alternative for meeting up the growing demand of petroleum products. The central government has been pursuing the matter diplomatically and soon a team will visit Bangladesh, Pradhan attributed.
The pipeline if approved by the Bangladesh government would be laid by the side of the rail lines which pass near the Indo-Bangla international border, he said adding that Modi led government is well aware of the petroleum crisis of Tripura has been facing due to transportation difficulties.
Besides launching, PMUY for poor families he also laid the foundation for a new gas bottling plant here with 60 thousand metric tons per annum (TMTPA) capacity with an estimated cost of Rs 143 crore which would be completed by 2019. Now about 4.5 lakh households are covered by the existing bottling plant out of total 9.22 households having LPG connection.
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