Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: Pakistani media reported on Tuesday that groundbreaking ceremony of much-awaited Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project will begin from December 13 in Asghabat the capital city of Turkmenistan.
TAPI project will commence next week, some 25 years after the inception of the project, Pakistani newspaper Dawn while quoting managing director of Pakistan Interstate Gas Systems Private Ltd, Mobin Saulat, as saying.
TAPI is a $10 billion gas pipeline project; leaders from Afghanistan, India and Pakistan will attend groundbreaking ceremony in Ashgabat.
Dialogue to import gas for energy-starved Pakistan was initiated with Turkmenistan in 1990, Saulat said. However, he added that work on the pipeline will finally start next week.
Afghan Gas Enterprise, Pakistan’s Interstate Gas System, India’s Gail Ltd, including Turkmenistan’s Turkmengas, are holding equal share in the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited (TPCL).
Saulat went on saying that India and Pakistan will get over 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of gas from TAPI while Afghanistan will get 0.5 billion cubic feet. Moreover he added that India will pay $200-250 million in transit fees to Pakistan and Pakistan will pay the same amount as transit fees to Afghanistan.
This is worth mentioning that the TAPI project will ensure regional economic development and also it is taken as a perfect example of energy integration in the region. When the region is embroiled in tensions, and Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India are looking to step forward, TAPI is highly a beneficial project, which will not only bring these countries closer in terms of economic interests, but it will eventually improve their political ties.
