Nepal’s Minister of Commerce and Supplies Sunil Bahadur Thapa and India’s Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan shake hands in Kathmandu after a signing ceremony on the pipeline project from Raxaul in India to Amlekhgunj in Nepal.

IANS/Kathmandu


India and Nepal yesterday inked an agreement for a 41km Amlekhgunj-Raxaul petroleum pipeline, with visiting Indian Minister Dharmendra Pradhan saying its construction would be completed within 30 months.
India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Pradhan and his Nepalese counterpart Sunil Bahadur Thapa inked the Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of the pipeline from Raxaul (India) to Amlekhgunj (Nepal) and re-engineering the Amlekhgunj Depot and allied facilities.
Amlekhgunj has the largest petroleum depot in Nepal owned by Nepal Oil Corp.
“Indian Oil Corp is capable of executing the project and we expect it will be completed before the set deadline of 30 months,” he said after singing the MoU.
On behalf of the Indian government, the IOC will construct the pipeline and re-engineer Amlekhgunj depot and allied facilities. The project will be completed in two phases. In the first phase, the pipeline would be constructed.
The minister suggested to the Nepalese side to extend the pipeline up to Kathmandu, adding that India would extend all possible help to Nepal in this regard.
The IOC would bear the cost of INR20bn for the first phase. A long-term contract (initially for five years, extendable for two terms of five years each) between the IOC and Nepal Oil Corp would be in place for the project.
The government of Nepal requested for the construction of this pipeline during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Himalayan nation on August 3-4, 2014.
Nepal Oil Corp would contribute INR7.5bn for re-engineering the Amlekhgunj depot.
While 39km of the proposed pipeline lies in the Indian territory, the remaining 2km is in Nepal.


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