The US-backed gas pipeline project from Turkmenistan to India, via Afghanistan and Pakistan, is expected to make progress on the price of gas and the security of its delivery when Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, hosts a meeting in the second week of December.
The 1,680-km-long, $8-million pipeline will bring Caspian gas from Dauletabad in Turkmenistan to Fazilka in Ferozepur district of Punjab. According to some estimates, India will be represented in the Ashgabat meeting but not by the PM. On the other hand, the Turkmen, Pakistani and Afghan delegations are expected to be represented at the political level.
Turkmenistan hopes a gas sales purchase agreement may be signed next month but a package of agreements are still being discussed, so the signing will have to wait for the technical issues to be sorted out. It is likely that the technical working group will meet in Ashgabat early next month to tie up loose ends.
The TAPI pipeline will come at the expense of the still-born Iran-Pakistan-India project.
Piped gas from Iran has become the latest casualty of the foreign policy “congruence” between India and the United States, as spelt out in the Hyde Act of 2006.