Prime ministers (PM) of Nepal and India have inaugurated the Motihari-Amlekhgunj petroleum pipeline from their respective residences on Tuesday.
PM KP Sharma Oli and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi inaugurated the pipeline by simultaneously pushing the buttons from Kathmandu and New Delhi respectively. While the button pushed by Modi sent diesel from Motihari, that pushed by Oli received it.
The diesel so received was collected in Amlekhgunj by Indian Oli Corporation (IOC) representatives and handed over to Managing Director of the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) Surendra Paudel.
A control room has been built in Amlekhgunj to open and close the pipeline. The pipeline can operate round the clock and can bring up to 294 kiloliters of petroleum products per hour.
The NOC said the petroleum products received from the pipeline will be sent to the market from Tuesday itself. It will initially be sent only to Kathmandu and Pokhara.
The NOC, meanwhile, has slashed price of petroleum products Tuesday itself after reduction in transportation cost following operation of the pipeline. Price of petrol, diesel and kerosene has been cut by Rs 2 per liter owing to the lower transportation cost.
Four tanks are in place at Amlekhgunj to store the petroleum products to be brought by the pipeline. Two of those tanks have capacity of 4.10 million liters each and the other two 3.9 million liters.
The NOC says it will save Rs 700-800 million in transportation cost every year once the pipeline comes into operation.
New pipeline was laid from Motihari of India to Amlekhgunj (69.5 km with 37.5 km in Nepal) with joint investment of the NOC and the IOC. Patna is almost 200 kilometers away from Motihari.
The IOC has provided grant of Rs 3.20 billion for the pipeline project while the NOC has invested Rs 750 million.
