Islamabad, Feb. 21 (TNS): Pakistan and India will attend a groundbreaking ceremony of the Turkmenistan section of the USD 10 billion TAPI gas pipeline project that will help ease energy shortages in South Asia.
The first leg of the ceremony to be held in Serhetabat, Turkmenistan tomorrow (Thursday) will be attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Malikgulyevich Berdimuhamedov, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani and Indian Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar.
Abbasi will then proceed to Herat, Afghanistan to attend the Afghan leg of the groundbreaking ceremony.
The ambitious natural gas pipeline project entered its practical phase in Pakistan after the process of initiating front-end-engineering-and-design (FEED) route survey was formally inaugurated last year.
Turkmenistan, which sits on the world’s fourth-largest gas reserves, started building its section of the pipeline in December 2015.
The TAPI pipeline will have a capacity to carry 90 million standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) gas for 30 years and is planned to become operational this year.
