Hindustan Petroleum Corporation today commissioned the country's biggest pipeline to transport petrol, diesel and kerosene from the western coast to northern states, a company statement said.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi commissioned the 1,054-km Mundra-Delhi pipeline, built at a cost of Rs1,757 crore.

The cross-country oil-product pipelines has been commissioned under the common carrier principle wherein companies other than HPCL can access 30 per cent of the capacity.

HPCL will pump Euro-II and Euro-II grade petrol, diesel and kerosene from the Gujarat coast to the national capital through the 18-inch pipeline.  Besides HPCL, private sector Essar and state-run IndianOil Corp (IOC) may also use the pipeline.

The pipeline connects supply centres in Gujarat in the west to the consumption areas in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and further north.

The pipeline will consolidate HPCL's presence in northern India, where it currently has no oil refinery.

The pipeline is designed to carry 5 million tonnes a year but this can be expanded to 6 million tonnes a year by adding three new pump stations. It can also be used to carry imported products if there is a domestic shortfall.

HPCL has built 76 storage tanks along the pipeline, with a combined capacity of 611,000 kilolitres.

The pipeline will carry products from refineries of HPCL and other firms such as Indian Oil Corp and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd in southern India, officials said.

HPCL has about 8,033 fuel outlets in the country, selling close to 11 million tonnes of fuel annually.