BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 1
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
India is interested in accelerating the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, said Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to Turkmenistan Vidhu Peethambaran Nair, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenportal information portal.
The ambassador made this remark during a meeting with the Minister of Industry and Construction Production of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov.
The Indian ambassador highly appreciated Turkmenistan's initiatives to create international transport and transit corridors and ensure global energy security.
The sides also discussed issues of expanding cooperation between Turkmenistan and India in various industries and construction engineering.
During the meeting, the effectiveness of the Turkmen-Indian relations in the political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian fields was highlighted. Special emphasis is placed on joint projects in the fields of energy, transport, and healthcare.
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.
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