The proposed 1,176-km long pipeline will have a capacity of 5.3MM tonnes of products a year, and will carry products from the company’s Mumbai refinery, similarly to the Indian Oil Co’s (IOC) Kandla-Bhatinda pipeline that is currently being converted into a crude oil pipeline.
The Kandla-Bhatinda line currently transports products to HPCL’s petrol stations in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Uttar Pradesh. According to sources, HPCL chairman and managing director M B Lal, in talks with the petroleum ministry, stressed the need for selling fuel in north India when IOC’s pipeline becomes redundant for product transportation. The state-owned company feels it badly needs a dedicated supply line of its own to transport products from its Mumbai refinery.