Top sources told The Financial Express that the group will submit its report shortly to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. After this is done, talks will begin with officials of the Bangladesh government to check if any one of the options could be exercised. The present thinking is that 0.5 million tonnes of superior kerosene oil (SKO) and high speed diesel (HSD) could be carried to the country from Numaligarh.

"There is no problem considering the rail route as metre gauge trains are already operational. As far as the road alternative is concerned, the infrastructure is in place for a direct link from Assam to Bangladesh," sources said. Thedeciding factor would be the cost of transport and back-of-the envelope calculations show that road and river options fit the bill ideally.

Assuming that all three routes are found feasible, the Indian government could then consider transporting a greater quantity of products from Numaligarh to Bangladesh. This would completely do away with the need to carry the products to other parts of India by road and rail, sources said.

The three million tonne NRL, promoted by BPCL and IBP, is scheduled to be fully operational in a month. The Assam government will pick up 10 per cent in the project while Oil India is tipped to participate in the equity also.The working group, which finalised the proposal for evacuation of products from the refinery, has recommended sale of 0.5 million tonnes of petro-products to Bangladesh as the best option. The other alternatives which were reviewed included a product swap agreement with the country as also trading of HSD and SKO.

Both routes have been considered difficult asthey would require prior government-to-government approval. However, a straight sale of 0.5 million tonnes is possible as this is covered under the existing protocol on inland water transit and trade between India and Bangladesh.

The working group has acknowledged that the initial cost in establishing the river route from NRL would work out to be high as, besides creating the necessary infrastructure, large investments need to be made to procure a new fleet of barges which would cost around Rs 2.5 crore each. Further, the river route needs to be upgraded to facilitate day-night movement of the barges, thereby reducing their turnaround time by 30-40 per cent. The cost of river movement per tonne is expected to gradually reduce over a period of time.

Despite the initial hiccups in high costs, the working group has reiterated that the river route needs to be established on logistical grounds as the other major route of transportation - tank wagons - cannot be fully relied upon for such large movements due tosingle tracks and other problems.

However, the panel feels that the high cost of river transport would need to be reimbursed from a central freight pool as is presently allowed for reimbursing the higher transportation cost even for non-APM products from the northeast refineries.

BPCL and IBP have, in the meantime, worked out an arrangement where nearly 70 per cent of the products could be transported by rail for which investments have already been made. The balance would be taken up by road via tankers.

The investment for the rail link has been made by IOC, HPCL, BPCL and IBP wherein 1,200 BTPN (bogie type petroleum new) wagons have been procured for Rs 204 crore. The wagons, which cost Rs 17 lakh apiece, have a capacity of 66,000 litres each which make them twice as large as normal ones. The products will be carried to New Jalpaiguri and thereon to parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The wagons will be leased to the railways under the "own your wagon scheme". Top sources told The Financial Expressthat the largest investment has been made by IOC (Rs 116 crore to procure 684 wagons), followed by HPCL (Rs 40 crore and 234 wagons), BPCL (Rs 39 crore and 228 wagons) and finally IBP (Rs 9 crore to buy 54 wagons).