Engineers India Limited (EIL) has achieved a historic global milestone by completing the longest Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) crossing ever recorded for a 26-inch pipeline beneath the mighty Brahmaputra River a major engineering feat for India’s energy infrastructure.
The record-breaking drill spanned an astonishing 4,058 metres, eclipsing EIL’s own previous global record of 4,027 metres set during an earlier HDD crossing of the Ganga River under the same Paradip–Numaligarh Crude Oil Pipeline (PNCPL) project.
The achievement came during the critical and technically demanding pullback phase of HDD operations, a stage industry experts regard as one of the most challenging in large-diameter underground pipeline construction.
The PNCPL project a 1,635-km strategic crude oil pipeline being developed for Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) will transport imported crude oil from Paradip Port in Odisha to Numaligarh in Assam, traversing multiple states including Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, and several northeastern regions.
Once operational, the pipeline is expected to significantly enhance India’s energy security, support refinery expansion plans in the Northeast, and boost economic development through improved infrastructure and job creation across eastern and northeastern states.
EIL credited the accomplishment to the strong collaboration among NRL, executing contractors, and project stakeholders marking a major step forward in the timely delivery of a project of national importance.
