India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL)

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL)
• Significance of IBFPL

 

Why in News?

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina jointly inaugurated the India – Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline via video-conferencing.

 

India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL)

 

Image Caption: IBFPL

• The IBFPL is a 131.5 kilometre long oil pipeline connecting Siliguri in North Bengal to Parbatipur in Bangladesh’s Dinajpur province.
• The construction of the project started in 2018 with the help of India's grant funding.
• The pipeline will carry one million tonnes of high-speed diesel from Numaligarh refinery in Assam to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s Parbatipur depot.
• The pipeline, built at a cost of Rs. 377 crore, is part of energy sector cooperation between the two neighbouring countries through which Bangladesh will import petroleum, especially diesel from India.
• The supply will start on an experimental basis in June this year.
• The fuel transport deal will be effective for 15 years with an option for further extension.

 

Significance of IBFPL

• Bangladesh’s rising energy demands –
  • Bangladesh faces a major energy crisis that threatens to hobble its growth.
  • In early October last year, Bangladesh suffered a grid failure that left nearly 80 per cent of the country without power.
  • Due to daily power outages, many industrial units in Bangladesh reported a fall in production by up to 50 per cent last year.
  • The energy crisis in Bangladesh, which is an energy-deficit country, was intensified by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the consequent exponential increase in oil and gas prices.
  • Given this scenario, the IBFP will mark an important milestone in Bangladesh’s quest to fully meet its energy needs.
• India’s efforts to curtail China’s influence –
  • India’s help to Bangladesh in meeting its energy needs is also aimed at offsetting that country’s dependence on China, whose investments in Bangladesh’s energy sector stand at US $ 8.31 billion.
  • Beijing has offered to help Bangladesh’s transition to renewable sources of energy. But Dhaka is wary of taking loans from China to set up power-generating plants.
  • Bangladesh finance minister Mustafa Kamal had, a few months back, warned against China’s lending policies that push countries into debt.
  • India is also playing a key role in helping Bangladesh access clean and cheap energy from Bhutan and Nepal.
    • India has proposed expansion of power trade within the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) framework and multilateral talks facilitated by the Indian government are currently on in this regard.
  • India has also promised to export power generated from its upcoming hydro-power projects in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh once these are commissioned.
• Economic Benefits –
  • India will send 2 lakh tonnes of oil annually in the first three years, 3 lakh tonnes per annum in the next three years, 5 lakh tonnes annually in the next four years and 10 lakh tonnes annually afterwards
  • The pipeline with India will cut the transportation cost of fuel oil for Bangladesh by 50%.
  • It will also reduce the transportation time to just one hour as compared to the current situation of taking several days to transport diesel via wagons and trawlers.
  • India will also benefit from it. India will earn revenue through this diesel export.
• This is the first cross-border energy pipeline between India and Bangladesh.
• The India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline is, thus, a major milestone in India’s efforts to help Bangladesh tide over its energy crisis.
• It is also part of New Delhi’s efforts to counter China’s influence over countries in the neighborhood.

 

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Q1) What is the trade value between India and Bangladesh?

Exports from India to Bangladesh reached $16.15 billion in 2021-2022 while imports from Bangladesh stood at $1.97 billion in the same fiscal. Hence, India has a trade surplus with Bangladesh.

 

Q2) How many states in India share border with Bangladesh?

Bangladesh and India share a 4,096-kilometre-long international border, the fifth-longest land border in the world, including 262 km in Assam, 856 km in Tripura, 318 km in Mizoram, 443 km in Meghalaya, and 2,217 km in West Bengal.

 

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Source: PM Modi and Sheikh Hasina launch 'India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline' | Hindu