KATHMANDU, June 5: Around 99 percent of the installation of petroleum pipeline along the Motihari-Amlekhgunj has been completed. Petroleum products from India will be imported to Nepal via around 78-kilometers pipeline under this Project which remains as the first cross-border project in entire South Asia.

Of the total length of the pipeline, 36 kilometers is towards Indian territory and the 42 kilometers is from the Indian bordering market of Raxaul to Amlekhgunj of Bara district, according to the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC).

The Project was likely to come into operation since mid-April this year but now has been rescheduled for mid-July. An eight-day training will be provided to a total of 25 technicians working on this Project.

The Project costs over Indian rupees two billion of the Indian Oil Corporation and remains in the priority of both Nepal and Indian governments and is estimated to reduce the import cost of petroleum products from India to Nepal by Rs 2 billion annually as it becomes functional. According to NOC Deputy Director Pushkar Karki, after the training of technicians is over, the Pipeline’s ownership will be handed over to Nepal and it will come into operation.

The remaining works of the Project had been expedited after the Executive Director of NOC, Surendra Kumar Poudel, actively and positively interfered the earlier stalled installation process, it is said. Of the total import of petroleum products, some 70 percent is made through Amlekhgunj point. NOC plans to expand the pipeline up to Lothar in Chitwan with the installation of this pipeline.

 
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• installation
 
• completion