<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Bangladesh-India Friendship pipeline, carrying fuel from India's Numaligarh refinery to Bangladesh's Parbatipur depot, will contribute effectively to energy security of Bangladesh.  Bangladesh Energy Minister Nasrul Hamid said that it will be a milestone in providing fuel to the northern region of the country quickly, uninterruptedly and in a cost-effective manner.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />''</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> </p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;"> The 130 kilometre long pipeline has a capacity to supply one million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA) fuel from India to power plants in Bangladesh and to 16 districts of the northern region.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />''</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;"> Earlier on Thursday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. A K Abdul Momen had announced that the pipeline will be jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 18 via video-conferencing.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #222222;"> </span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;"> The ground-breaking ceremony for the project took place in 2018. The project was scheduled to be completed in June this year but it will become operational ahead of time. The pipeline is built at an approximate cost of 346 crore rupees, financed under India's concessional Line of Credit (LOC) to Bangladesh. </span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">  </p>