Numaligarh Refinery, Inland Waterways Authority ink MoU for transportation of petroleum products to Bangladesh

Numaligarh Refinery inks MoU with Inland Waterways Authority for transportation of petroleum products to Bangladesh
Guwahati (Assam) [India], August 24 : Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) on Thursday signed an MoU with Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) for the transportation of petroleum products of the Assam-based company to Bangladesh.
The collaboration was made for supplying such products through IWAI's upgraded jetty at Jogighopa in Assam, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said.
The MoU was signed by the Chief General Manager (Marketing) of NRL Subrata Das and Director of IWAI A Selva Kumar.
The event was attended by Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ayush Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Labour and Employment Rameshwar Teli, Minister of Transport, Excise and Fisheries of Assam government Parimal Suklabaidya and state minister of Industries and Commerce and Public Enterprises, and Cultural Affairs Bimal Borah.

NRL envisages to export of 200 thousand metric tonne of products per annum to Bangladesh through Jogighopa jetty, after the commissioning of its expanded refinery and petrochemicals plant.
Speaking on the occasion, Sonowal said that collaboration between NRL and IWAI is expected to provide a boost to the Centre's 'Gati Shakti' initiative and 'Act East Policy'.

“It is a watershed moment for inland waterways for the promotion of trade in the Northeast India region. The MoU is aimed at powering the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan to bring transformative change in the cargo movement for the region. Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, the visionary Act East policy is empowering Northeast India towards unlocking the full potential of Hydrocarbon Vision 2030. Modi ji has realised that Northeast India has the potential to become the engine of India’s growth story. The rich interweb of our waterbodies and rich potential of hydrocarbon must be explored in the best possible manner to power the Northeast region towards the realisation of this vision of PM Narendra Modi ji,” the minister said.
According to NRL officials, following the inauguration of the 'India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL)' and its commissioning earlier this year, the neighbouring country is keen to collaborate in transporting fuel to north Bangladesh, particularly in winter, through waterways.
NRL is currently implementing a project for the expansion of its refinery from 3.0 to 9.0 MMTPA at an approved cost of more than Rs 28,000 crore which is scheduled for completion by early 2025.
NRL has also initiated the process of implementing a project for setting up a petrochemical plant at a cost of Rs 7,231 crore.
“NRL envisages to export 200 TMT of products per annum to Bangladesh through IWAI’s jetty in Jogighopa comprising diesel, petrol, solvent and polypropylene after commissioning of the expanded refinery and petrochemicals plant,” the ministry said.
Earlier, NRL and IWAI had signed an MoU on August 26, 2021, for transporting ODC and OWC through maritime route utilizing the National Waterways.
The first such consignment was received at a jetty near Numaligarh by the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in mid-June this year.