Kathmandu, September 27

A day after the postponement of first joint working group meeting on oil and gas, which was scheduled to be held yesterday and today, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, India Dharmendra Debendra Pradhan will arrive in Kathmandu on Friday.

It is reported that Minister Pradhan will meet with his counterpart Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Matrika Prasad Yadav and pay a courtesy call on senior Cabinet ministers.

According to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Minister Yadav will discuss expanding the cross-border petroleum pipeline that is under construction from Motihari (India) to Amlekhgunj (Nepal) further to Lothar of Chitwan district and gas pipeline from Muzaffarpur (India) to Amlekhgunj.

The joint working group meeting led by joint secretaries of the concerned ministries was supposed to hold discussions on this issue.

Minister Pradhan is arriving in Nepal to observe progress of 37-km cross-border petroleum pipeline. Around 50 per cent of works of the pipeline has been completed so far, as per Birendra Kumar Goit, spokesperson for Nepal Oil Corporation.