NEW DELHI, May 27: Uncertainty over the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline plan has prompted India to look at the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline project to meet its growing energy requirements, Press Trust of India said on Sunday, quoting Petroleum Minister Murali Deora.
“We are very keen to join the TAP pipeline project, which government sees as another source to procure gas from abroad,” PTI quoted him as saying in Mumbai. India’s Minister of State for Petroleum Dinsha Patel had gone last month to Turkmenistan “and they have shown positive signal for India joining the project,” Mr Deora said.
India’s Petroleum Ministry had already given an in-principle clearance to the project, he added.
The $2.5 billion TAP project involves construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan to provide cheaper and cleaner energy to south and central Asian regions.
Mr Deora said India was working hard to resolve issues related to the Pipeline project. “Petroluem Secretary M S Srinivasan was in Islamabad for the last three days and held discussions with his Pakistani and Iranian counterparts. We are expecting things to get resolved very soon,” he said.
