After eight years of buying the land under Lothar river in Chitwan to build a storage site for petroleum products, Nepal Oil Corporation is finally starting the work. The field office of the project to build a petroleum storage house with a pipeline from Amlekhganj to Lothar was inaugurated on Friday.

Project head Pradeep Kumar Yadav said that the work of the storage area along with the pipeline will be completed within the next 54 months. "Because the work has started with a lot of preparation, even if it takes 54 months, I think this work will be completed within three years," claims Yadav.

He said that based on the experience that he was involved in the construction of the pipeline up to Amlekhganj earlier, he estimated that the work would be completed ahead of time. Oil Corporation started buying land there from February 2073. In the name of the corporation, there is 23 bighas and 12 kattas of land in Lothar.

There was a controversy that the Lothar Khola Aad land, which is at a high risk of flooding, was bought at a higher price than the current price. The land connected with the river is below the river bed. The corporation is going to build a pipeline and a storage place at a total cost of 14 billion 96 million rupees. 

The cost of the pipeline is 4 billion 288 million rupees and the cost of the warehouse is 9 billion 808 million rupees. The distance of the pipeline from Amlekhganj to Lothar will be 62 km. Earlier, India had completed the 69 km petroleum pipeline from Motihari to Amlekhganj in 18 months. 

A pipeline will be laid parallel to East West Mahendra Highway to connect Amlekhganj to Lothar. After the pipeline is ready, petroleum products will be sent from Motihari to Lothar as well. According to the information provided by the Oil Corporation, the diameter of the pipe will be 11 inches. 

273 kilo liters of oil per hour will flow through the pipeline. Ramhari Niraula, deputy director of the corporation, informed that the pipeline has the capacity to transport 20 million (two million) tons of fuel per year. He said that for the first time outside the valley, aviation fuel is also going to be stored in the warehouse. The

storehouse will have three storage areas each with a capacity of 11 kilo liters of petrol. It will hold 33,000 kilo liters of petrol. Similarly, there will be three storage places with a capacity of 15,500 kilo liters to store diesel. Where 46,500 kilo liters of diesel will fit. Similarly, there will be two warehouses of kerosene, each of which can hold 800 kilo liters.

There will be three warehouses for aviation fuel. Each warehouse has a capacity of 3,600 kiloliters of oil and will hold 10,800 kiloliters of aviation fuel. After all, 91,900 kilo liters of petroleum products can be stored in the storage area, the deputy director of the corporation, Ramhari Niraula, said.