Gas lines likely from Myanmar, B'desh, Nepal to N-E: Pradhan

Aiming to set up energy co-operation with neighboring countries, the Government of India is planning to lay huge pipelines from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal to India's various parts, especially in North-Eastern region, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan asserted in Tripura on Monday.

While inaugurating a new grass-root bottling plant at Agartala, Pradhan mentioned, "Through diplomatic channels, India already tied up to set up an energy cooperation network with Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal. All the countries have already agreed to this ambitious mission."

The Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas has also taken up with the Government of Bangladesh for laying a pipeline carrying natural gas from Chittagong to Tripura to address the cooking gas shortage of the North East, the minister added. He laid the foundation stone for a 60 metric tonne per annum capacity LPG (cooking gas) bottling plant at Bodhjungnagar industrial park (20 km north of Agartala). A sum of Rs 143 crore would be spent for the plant, which would be commissioned by June 2019.

Pradhan said, now about 4.5 lakh households are covered by the existing bottling plant out of total 9.22 households having LPG connection.

With the completion of the new bottling plant the capacity of supplying LPG would be doubled and most of the households would be covered, he added.

While addressing the newsmen at Agartala, Pradhan also mentioned that, "We are laying a pipeline for transportation of diesel from Siliguri in West Bengal to Parvatipur in Bangladesh. There is pipeline for carrying diesel from Numaligarh oil refinery in Assam to Siliguri. In exchange, we have given the proposal for a gas pipeline from Chittagong to Tripura. We are pursuing the matter diplomatically and I would also visit Bangladesh soon."

According to ministry officials, as part of the "Hydrocarbon Vision 2030" for the North-East region, 6,900 km of pipelines would be laid connecting Sitwe (Myanmar), Chittagong (Bangladesh), most northeastern states and West Bengal's Siliguri and Durgapur. As the mountainous in the region are landslide prone and carrying of petroleum products in the region is a big problem, the proposed pipelines would be a great help for the area, they also claimed.

Moreover, through the proposed pipelines, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and other petroleum products would be ferried.

Along with the Left ruled state government's Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Bhanulal Saha, Pradhan also launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) scheme and distributed PMUY connections to 20 women beneficiaries belonging to below poverty line.

Currently, large quantities of gas are flared (burned) in the region because it can't be piped to the consumers.