Nepal and India on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the construction of cross-border petroleum pipeline at the Minister for Commerce and Supplies.

An Indian team led by Indian Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday to sign the agreement. The proposed 41-km Amlekhgunj-Raxaul pipeline is expected to ease transportation of fuel and eliminate the country’s dependence on oil tankers.

A meeting of the Indian Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved the signing of the MoU on the pipeline construction.

Under the first phase of the project, a pipeline will be laid from Raxaul to Amlekhgunj, and under the second phase, it will be extended to Kathmandu. Re-engineering of the Amlekhgunj depot and allied facilities are among the packages of the project.

Following the agreement, two separate agreements, business-to-business and modus operandi (operation modality), will also be signed between state-owned oil monopoly Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and its sole supplier Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

Below is a timeline of events in the  last two decades. 

PIPELINE TIMELINE