At the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong, fuel for aircraft is now being transported via pipeline.

According to sources, the 'Jet A-1 Pipeline, from Main Installation (MI) to Shah Amanat International Airport' project was inaugurated on Tuesday morning by Secretary Mohammad Saiful Islam of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

The fuel is being transported from the Padma Oil Company’s main installation at Guptakhali in Patenga, through a pipeline of 5.77 kilometers to the airport. The project was implemented with the aim of supplying aircraft fuel in a modern, environmentally friendly and time-saving manner.

The event was presided over by Md. Amin ul Ahsan, Chairman of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC). The special guests included Air Vice-Marshal Haider Abdullah of the Bangladesh Air Force, Group Captain Sheikh Abdullah Al Alamgir, Director of Shah Amanat International Airport, and Dr. A. K. M. Azadur Rahman, Director (Operations & Projects) of BPC.

According to the sources, previously the Jet A-1 fuel was supplied to the aviation depot at Shah Amanat via tank-lorries from the main installation 8 kilometers away. The daily demand of the airport is 2 lakh 25 thousand liters, which amounts to 65,000 tons annually. Under the previous method of transport by tank-lorries, the cost was about TK 8 crore per year.

With the new project, built at a cost of TK 1700 crore, 8-inch bore underground pipeline (with internal epoxy-coating and external 3-layer polyethylene coating) has been installed, capable of transporting 140 cubic meters of fuel per hour.