NEW DELHI, Nov 20: India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora has put off his visit to Pakistan later this month, The Hindu said on Tuesday.

It said the indefinite postponement had caused a setback to proposed crucial talks on Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (Tapi) gas pipelines.Mr. Deora was to lead a high-level delegation to Islamabad on Nov 28 and 29 to sign the formal agreement of India joining the Asian Development Bank-sponsored Tapi pipeline.

The Hindu quoted “highly-placed sources” as saying that the uncertainty in Pakistan after the imposition of emergency and the holding of general elections there had forced the postponement of the visit. The sources said the ADB was also having a rethink on holding the Steering Committee of the Tapi pipeline in Islamabad in view of the sensitive political situation.

Mr. Deora indicated last week that during his visit to Pakistan, he would take up the imposition of transit fee on the IPI pipeline and sort out the situation, paving the way for India to sign a trilateral agreement soon. Iran says there was no deadline for India to sign the agreement.

New Delhi and Islamabad had reached a broad understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan for wheeling natural gas through the 1,035-km pipeline segment in that country, The Hindu said.

“But the two nations had yet to decide on a transit fee payable to Pakistan for allowing usage of its territory for passage of the pipeline to India. Islamabad had sought $0.493 per MBTU while New Delhi offered $0.20 per MBTU.”

The proposed Tapi pipeline will have a capacity of 33 billion cubic metres of natural gas per annum. The 1,680km pipeline will run from the Dauletabad gas field to Afghanistan. From there, it will be constructed alongside the highway running from Herat to Kandahar, and then via Quetta and Multan in Pakistan, according to the report. The final destination of the pipeline will be Fazilka, near the India-Pakistan border.