Chapainawabganj: The initial consignment of 2200 metric tons of gasoil from India entered Bangladesh on Friday through Rohanpur railway port of the district.

Rohanpur railway station master Mirza Qamrul Haque said a train with 42 wagons carrying gasoil entered Bangladesh territory as a goodwill gesture from India.

The train left Rohanpur railway station for Parbatipur railway station of Dinajpur district around 6:15pm on Friday.

Officials of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) and other government officials were present.

Prime Minister’s Energy Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid and Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsh Vardhan Shringla will receive the consignment at Parbatipur on Saturday.

The consignment, as a goodwill gesture to Bangladesh, started for Parbatipur in Dinajpur district from Siliguri, West Bengal on Thursday.

Minister (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas of India Dharmendra Pradhan flagged off the train at Siliguri.

This event is a very significant as it highlights the cooperation between Bangladesh and India in the energy sector as outlined in the joint declaration “Notun Projonmo, Nayi Disha’ adopted during the visit of the Prime Minister of India to Bangladesh in June 2015, said Indian High Commission in Dhaka.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the two sides on April 20, 2015 at Dhaka for implementation of the 130 km Indo-Bangla Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL) capacity from Siliguri to Parbatipur Petroleum Product Storage Depot in Dinajpur through a Joint Venture (JV) company having equal participation from both NRL (Numaligarh Refinery Limited) and BPC (Bangladesh Petroleum Cooperation).

NRL has supplied this first 2200 MT consignment of gasoil at a goodwill price as proposed by the BPC.

UNB/RI