KABUL - Pakistan and Turkmenistan have signed an agreement on implementation of the $8 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline.
The two sides also agreed on establishing a working group to finalise an agreement on a transmission line of up to 1,000MW electricity.
The deal will let Pakistan’s Interstate Gas Company enter a formal technical implementation agreement for the ground-breaking ceremony for the section of the pipeline in Pakistan within two to three months.
Similar ceremonies for the construction of about a 200km pipeline in Turkmenistan and about 800km in Afghanistan have already taken place and project implementation has started.
The agreement was signed by Pakistan’s Petroleum Secretary Mian Asad Hayauddin and TAPI Pipeline Company Limited CEO Amanov.
Pakistan’s Minister for Pet­roleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Energy Minister Döwran Rejepow attended the signing ceremony.
Meredov said his country was working on a plan to make a transport and energy corridor between Pakistan and Turkmenistan via Afghanistan and to lay an optic-fibre network parallel to the route of the pipeline. (Pajhwok)