Dhaka: As a goodwill gesture to Bangladesh, a train carrying an initial consignment of 2200 MT of gasoil started for Parbatipur in Dinajpur district from Siliguri, West Bengal on Thursday.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid and Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsh Vardhan Shringla will receive the consignment at Parbatipur, Bangladesh on March 19.

Minister (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas of India Dharmendra Pradhan flagged off the train.

This event is a very significant as it highlights of the cooperation between Bangladesh and India in the energy sector as outlined in the joint declaration “Notun Projonmo, Nayi Disha’ adopted during the visit of the Prime Minister of India to Bangladesh in June 2015, said Indian High Commission in Dhaka.  

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the two sides on April 20, 2015 at Dhaka for implementation of the 130 KM Indo-Bangla Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL) capacity from Siliguri to Parbatipur Petroleum Product Storage Depot in Dinajpur District through a Joint Venture (JV) Company having equity participation from both NRL (Numaligarh Refinery Limited) and BPC (Bangladesh Petroleum Cooperation).  

NRL has supplied this first 2200 MT consignment of Gasoil at a goodwill price as proposed by BPC.