India mulls installing gas pipeline from Chittagong to Tripura

India’s Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has offered Bangladesh a proposal for laying a pipeline to carry natural gas from Chittagong to Tripura. Disclosing the development, India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the move is aimed to reimburse the crisis of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the northeastern Indian region. “We are laying a pipeline from Siliguri of West Bengal to Parvatipur of Gaibandha in Bangladesh. There is already a pipeline to carry diesel from Numaligarh Oil refinery in Assam to Siliguri,” he said. “Then again, we have offered a proposal for a gas pipeline from Chittagong to Tripura. We are pursuing the matter diplomatically, and I will also visit Bangladesh soon,” said Pradhan. The pipeline, if approved by the Bangladesh government, would be laid beside the railway lines which pass along the Indo-Bangla international border, he added.