Installation of Dhaka-Ctg pipeline comes to a halt

CHATTOGRAM, May 10: Works of the longest 246-kilometre pipeline to supply fuel oil from Chattogram to Dhaka has been badly hampered as China cannot send pipes due to Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Energy Ministry sources, all pipes for 246-kilometre long project are supposed to arrive from China.
Chinese pipes were scheduled to arrive in March last but due to corona pandemic, those pipes could not be shipped. So, the installation of those pipes has been delayed unnecessarily.
The state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) had taken a project of 246-kilometre pipeline to supply fuel oil from Chattogram to Dhaka in an attempt to check pilferage and ensure its quick supply.
Project Director Col. Jahangir Hussain told the Daily Observer that with the arrival of pipes, the installation works will begin.He claimed that 30 percent works of the project have so far been completed.
Eighty percent of the land has already been acquired, he said. The BPC had taken up the project involving an amount of Tk27 billion to carry imported and refined petroleum from the port city of Chattogram to Dhaka.
Jahangir Hussain told the Daily Observer that the project is expected to be completed by December 2022 next.
Presently, from Godnail and Fatullah in Narayanganj oil tankers usually transport oil through waterways to the depots in the country's northern areas including Baghabari (Pabna), Chilmari (Kurigram) and north-western Chachna Bazar (Sunamganj).
The Project Director said 237.71-km 16-inch diameter pipeline will be installed from BPC's Chattogram tank terminal at Padma Oil Installations at Patenga to Godnail Tank Terminal in Narayanganj.
Besides, the state-run Petroleum Corporation will install another 8.29-km 10-inch diameter pipeline from Godnail to Fatullah in Narayanganj to carry oil, Jahangir said.
Another 59.23-km 8-inch diameter pipeline from Cumilla to Chandpur will also be set up to supply oil to Chandpur areas later on, he said.
The oil transportation pipeline will be secured as it will be three-LPE (Layer Extruded Polyethylene Coating) coated pipeline.
Once the pipeline is installed, it would help cut time in oil delivery to end-users, traffic congestion and accidents during transportation and other unforeseen bottlenecks like natural disasters and strike.
Meanwhile, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), the government's highest economic policy-making body, approved the pipeline project in October in 2019.
BPC sources further said Dhaka and its adjacent areas consume nearly two million tonnes of oil a year.
Some 200 oil tankers are used to transport nearly 90 percent of oil through waterways.
Currently, Bangladesh depends on coastal tankers, railway wagons and tank-lorries to carry refined oils to end-users after import from global suppliers into Chattogram depots as it has no major oil- carrying pipeline.