Islamabad: The ground-breaking ceremony of the proposed multi-billion dollar 1,735-kilometre gas pipeline connecting Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India will start from December 13, Turkmenistan Ambassador to Pakistan has said.
The trans-national gas pipeline project known as TAPI, is intended to carry 33 billion cubic meters of gas annually through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar and terminate in Fazilka, a border town in India's Punjab state.
Turkmenistan Ambassador to Pakistan Atadjan Movlamov said the ground-breaking ceremony of TAPI project will take place in his country on December 13, Radio Pakistan reported.
Turkmenistan is said to have the world's fourth-largest gas reserves, but currently exports almost all of it to China.
TAPI is vital for economic growth of regional countries, Pakistan's Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada said.
He said TAPI project is vital for Pakistan's energy needs and would strengthen relations between Islamabad and Ashgabat.
