NEW DELHI: Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural gas, said on Monday that his ministry has taken up with the Bangladesh government for laying a pipeline carrying natural gas from Chittagong in the neighbouring country to Tripura to address the cooking gas shortage of the north-eastern states. Revealing the intentions of the Indian government, Pradhan said, “We are laying a pipeline for transportation of diesel from Siliguri in West Bengal to Parvatipur in Bangladesh.
There is a 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.” The pipeline, once approved by the Hasina government, would be laid adjacent to the railway lines that pass along the Indo-Bangladesh border, the minister added.
Launching the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in Tripura, Pradhan distributed LPG connections to 20 families that have been categorised as below poverty line. Currently, 9.22 lakh households are having LPG connections in Tripura and efforts are on to bring 100 per cent coverage in the days to come, Pradhan noted.
The minister also laid the foundation for a bottling plant with 60,000 tonnes per annum capacity with an estimated cost of Rs 143 crore, which is likely to be completed by 2019. With the new bottling plant in the state, the minister expressed satisfaction that the supply of LPG would be doubled and cover most of the homes.