ISLIM CHESHMA: Afghan­istan said on Wednesday work would begin on a $10 billion gas pipeline traversing South Asia as officials joined dignitaries in neighbouring Turkmenistan to celebrate its completion on that side of the border.

Progress on the TAPI pipeline, running through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, has been repeatedly delayed because of security issues in conflict-ravaged Afghanistan.

“From today the operations will start on Afghanistan’s soil,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at the ceremony in comments broadcast by Afghan state television.

At the border ceremony in Islim Cheshma in Turkmenistan, officials on both sides, including Afghan Prime Minister Hassan Akhund, hailed the project.

“This project will benefit not only the economies of the countries participating but also the countries of the whole region,” Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedow said in a video broadcast live at the ceremony.

In the Afghan border province of Herat, a public holiday was declared to mark the occasion, with posters celebrating the project plastered around the capital of the same name. The pipeline will see around 33 billion cubic metres of natural gas each year extracted from the Galkynysh gas field in southeast Turkmenistan.

It will be pumped through an 1,800km pipeline traversing Afghanistan, including Herat and Kandahar in the south, before crossing into the Balochistan province in Pakistan and ending in Fazilka in Indian Punjab.

Pakistan and India will each purchase 42 per cent of the gas deliveries, and Afghanistan 16pc, while Kabul will also benefit from lucrative transit fees of around $500 million per year, according to Afghan media. Work on the Turkmen side began in 2015 and was initially scheduled to start in Afghanistan in 2018, but has been repeatedly delayed.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2024