The Daily Morning Voice Online Desk: State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid on Monday said that diesel import from India would start through a recently built pipeline on an experimental basis from June. The minister said this in Parliament while replying to a question from Awami League MP Abdul Latif (Chattogram-11). With Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair, the question-answer session of the day’s sitting was tabled in the House.

In a scripted answer, Nasrul Hamid said that about 131.5 km India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL) has been constructed for importing diesel from India. Of the 131.5 km pipeline, 126.5 km is in the Bangladesh part and 5 km in the Indian part, the state minister said. Nasrul Hamid also said pre-commissioning of diesel imports through this pipeline is underway. “It is expected that the commissioning of diesel import, meaning that experimental diesel import through the pipeline will start in June, this year,” Nasrul said.

In response to another question from AL lawmaker Ali Azam (Bhola-2), Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun said there are currently 15 sugar mills in the country. Among them, only one is profitable and the remaining 14 are non-profit. In reply to a query from AL MP Mohammad Habib Hasan (Dhaka-18), Nasrul Hamid said it is not possible to resume providing residential gas connections unless the gas supply increases sufficiently and the growing demand for gas in industry, power and fertilizer plants is not reduced. In the context of gradual decline in domestic gas production, giving priority to industry, electricity and fertilizer factories in terms of gas connection is considered essential for the sake of economic mobility, he said.

Moreover, due to the rapid increase in the availability and use of LPG at the private level, the provision of new gas connections at the household level has been stopped through circulars. In response to a question from AL lawmaker Nurunnabi Chowdhury (Bhola-3), Nasrul Hamid said currently (June 2022) the amount of gas reserves in the country is 9.06 trillion cubic feet. With this reserve gas, it will be possible to meet the needs of the country for about 11 years. In reply to a query from AL lawmaker Didarul Alam (Chattogram-4), Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud said that now there are 346 online portals including 162 registered online news portals, 169 registered online portals of dailies and 15 online portals of TV channels.