New Delhi, Feb 9: India on Wednesday cleared the way for an ambitious project to bring piped gas from Turkmenistan via Pakistan, even as it prepared to begin negotiations with Bangladesh and Iran to tap gas supplies from there, an official announcement said.

According to the decision, the Indian cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to authorise ministry of petroleum and natural gas "to lead and participate in bilateral as well as multilateral negotiations with Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries for facilitating the laying of trans-national pipelines for importing natural gas."

Energy security is a key component of the National Common Minimum Programme. "To sustain higher economic growth of 7-8 per cent per annum, it is imperative to look for cost-effective and long-term arrangements to meet the energy requirements. Natural gas is the most economic, efficient and environment-friendly fuel," the announcement said.

Indian Foreign Minister Kunwar Natwar Singh is due to be in Islamabad on Feb 15 for rare bilateral ties, but he has interestingly added a stopover in Kabul on his way to Pakistan.

The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline project backed by the Asian Development Bank will now have a new interest in India.

An estimated demand of natural gas in India is 150 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) but the current availability is about 83 mmscmd (74 mmscmd from domestic sources and nine mmscmd from liquefied natural gas imports).

Implementation of Wednesday's proposals is expected to reduce the large deficit between the demand and supply of natural gas and would increase energy security in terms of availability as well as affordability.