BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 17
By Amina Nazarli - Trend:
Turkmenistan and Afghanistan have agreed to resume construction of the TAPI gas pipeline in March, delayed for years upon various reasons, Trend reports citing Business Turkmenistan.
The statement was made during a meeting in Ashgabat between an Afghan delegation led by Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, his Turkmen counterpart Rashid Meredov.
The parties also decided to schedule the work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan power transmission line (TAP) for spring.
Moreover, it was agreed to use Afghanistan as a transit route between Central and South Asia, transporting liquefied natural gas, minerals, food, and other commercial cargo.
The 1,814-kilometer-long TAPI gas pipeline is aimed to connect Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Earlier Waliullah Shahin, chairman of the Center for Strategic Studies of the Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that Turkmenistan will provide Afghanistan with a loan to cover its contribution to the TAPI project's initial construction work on Afghan section.
Financing is the major impediment to TAPI’s goal of transporting 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. The $10-billion project has been cash-strapped since its inception and the financing issues worsened even more since Afghanistan's government fell.
In India, the end point of TAPI, the entire infrastructure has already been built in order to receive the gas pipeline. But Afghanistan and Pakistan have been unable to complete the construction of their sections for several years.