BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 11
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
Turkmenistan and India discussed issues of increasing the pace of implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) transnational gas pipeline project, Tend reports with reference to Turkmenistan’s State News Agency.
This was stated during a meeting between President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to Turkmenistan Vidhu Peethambaran Nair.
India has expressed interest in speeding up the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline. The Indian side also expressed confidence that the implementation of this project will contribute to the development of economic cooperation between the regions.
The parties also noted that the countries are positively cooperating in such areas as energy, transport, health and others.
The Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline (TAPI), also known as Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline, is a natural gas pipeline being developed by the Galkynysh – TAPI Pipeline Company Limited with participation of the Asian Development Bank.
The pipeline will transport natural gas from the Galkynysh Gas Field in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. Construction on the project started in Turkmenistan on 13 December 2015.
The length of the Turkmen section of the TAPI pipeline, the construction of which was launched in December 2015, will be 205 kilometers (the main operations are carried out on the 120th kilometer). The pipeline will pass through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar (816 kilometers), through the cities of Quetta and Multan across Pakistani territory (819 kilometers), and reach the city of Fazilka in India.
The pipeline’s design capacity is planned to be 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and the project’s cost - about $8 billion.