Talks on for gas pipeline from Chittagong to Tripura: Dharmendra Pradhan

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has taken up with Bangladesh for laying a pipeline for carrying natural gas from Chittagong to Tripura to meet the crisis of cooking gas (LPG) in the North-eastern region, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

"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," Pradhan told reporters here.

The pipeline if approved by the Bangladesh government would be laid by the side of the rail lines which pass near the Indo-Bangla international border, he said.

Pradhan launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in Tripura here and distributed LPG connection to 20 below poverty line (BPL) families .

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In Tripura 9.22 lakh households are having LPG connections and efforts are on to bring 100 per cent coverage in the days to come.

The Oil minister also laid the foundation for a new grassroots bottling plant here with 60 TMTPA capacity with an estimated cost of Rs 143 crore which would be completed by 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.