Turkmenistan Ambassador to India Calls TAPI Pipeline Vital for Bilateral Ties

The Turkmenistan ambassador to India called The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project a "vital ingredient" of the economic cooperation between the two countries.

NEW DELH (Sputnik) — The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project is an essential element of economic cooperation, Turkmenistan's Ambassador in New Delhi Parakhat Durdyev told Sputnik on Monday.

Map of route of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline

© Wikipedia / U.S. Government - U.S. Energy Information Administration

"Our idea is to make India even more closer to us connected through the pipeline which is a vital ingredient of the economic cooperation," the ambassador said, adding that Turkmenistan views TAPI as a purely economic project that "will bring benefit to whole India."

The roots of the TAPI pipeline lie in the 1990s, but the project has been suspended several times over the decades. The ground-breaking ceremony for the project took finally place in 2015 in Turkmenistan.

The pipeline will transport natural gas from Caspian Sea deposits from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan into India. The total length of the pipeline will be over 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles), with the longest section running through Pakistan. The annual capacity of the pipeline is supposed to reach 33 billion cubic meters.