Sharing the fruits of progress with friendly nations! Motihari-Amlekhgunj pipeline will provide cleaner petroleum… https://t.co/LR7jVCeLqk — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) 1568112847000

NEW DELHI: India and Nepal on Tuesday opened South Asia ’s first cross-border oil product pipeline, helping Kathmandu to cut fuel prices by Rs 2 per litre on account of reduced transportation cost.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli jointly inaugurated through video-conference the 69km pipeline from state-run Indian Oil’s terminal in Motihari in north Bihar to Nepal Oil Corporation ’s Amlekhgunj depot in Narayani zone of southern Nepal.“Sharing the fruits of progress with friendly nations. Motihari-Amlekhgunj pipeline will provide cleaner petroleum products at affordable costs to the people of Nepal. I am glad that India and Nepal cooperation is scaling new heights for the mutual benefit of our people,” Modi tweeted.Oli described the pipeline as the “best example of connectivity in the field of trade and transit... between Nepal and India” and invited Modi to visit Nepal, which the Indian PM accepted. He noted the pipeline was completed 15 months ahead of schedule, which counters the perception in Nepal about the lethargic pace of India-funded projects. Modi and Oli had conducted the ground-breaking ceremony for the pipeline in April 2017.The Rs 324-crore pipeline is part of New Delhi’s efforts to deepen engagement with Kathmandu as part of its “neighbourhood first” policy. It has a capacity to transport two million tonnes of petroproducts annually and gives Nepal a cost-effective mode of uninterrupted fuel supply, secure from pilferage or adulteration as is the case in transportation by tankers.India and Nepal have had a fuel supply agreement since 1974 and the pipeline was first proposed in 1996. But it remained stuck in the shifting sands of bilateral relations till Modi’s 2014 visit to Kathmandu, which led to an agreement to execute the project. The project stumbled again because of the blockade by Terai Nepalis agitating against the new constitution, which led to fuel shortages in Nepal and bitterness in its ties with New Delhi.The pipeline was finally cleared in March 2017 at a meeting between oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Nepal’s then supply minister Deepak Bohara in Delhi. “Supplying fuel to Nepal is not a business proposition for India. It is our responsibility... so that you can provide every household, there is fuel for growth in industry and tourism, so that more vehicles (ply) and you can build more roads,” Pradhan had then told Bohara before IndianOil and Nepal Oil Corporation renewed their fuel supply agreement for five years.India currently supplies 1.3 million tonnes per annum of petroproducts to Nepal. This is expected to double by 2020. The pipeline will transport fuel from IndianOil’s Barauni refinery and replace the costly, time-taking option of moving products in tankers that is vulnerable to pilferage, adulteration and disruptions due to agitations or floods.