New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina jointly inaugurated the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFP) today in a virtual mode. IBFP is the first cross-border energy pipeline between India and Bangladesh with a capacity to transport 1 Million Metric Ton Per Annum (MMTPA) of High-Speed Diesel (HSD) to Bangladesh. Both Prime Ministers laid the foundation stone for the construction of this pipeline in September 2018.
This is the second cross-border energy pipeline between India and its neighbours. Numaligarh Refinery Limited has been supplying petroleum products to Bangladesh since 2015.
Cooperation in the power and energy sector has become one of the hallmarks of India-Bangladesh relations, the Indian Prime Minister’s Office stated. Enhanced connectivity with Bangladesh will further strengthen people-to-people linkages between the two sides, it added.
Bangladesh is India’s topmost development partner and its largest trade partner in the region. The operationalisation of the Friendship Pipeline will enhance ongoing energy cooperation between the two countries and lead to further growth particularly in the agriculture sector, in Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Modi thanked his Bangladesh counterpart for the latter’s constant guidance on the project. He expressed his wish to continue working with Prime Minister Sheik Hasina for the benefit of the people of the two countries.
– global bihari bureau
