All major hurdles in gas pipeline project removed

ISLAMABAD - All major hurdles in the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project have been resolved and a final agreement would be signed in Teheran within next three months, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday in an interview with PTV.
The Iranian president who made a brief stopover in Islamabad on way to Sri Lanka met President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, said foreign or other ministers concerned of Pakistan and India would visit Iran soon to formally sign the $7.5 billion project which could be completed in three years.
He said the tripartite agreement could be extended to include China as well because all three parties have no objection to the Chinese inclusion.
He further said that Iran has also agreed to launch a project to supply 1,100 megawatts of electricity to Pakistan from the Iranian Balochistan side on order to help Pakistan overcome its current severe power shortage.
The Iranian president held talks with President Musharraf and Prime Minister Gilani in separate meetings which were described by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as ‘productive and fruitful’. He said all major issues that had hitherto slowed down the progress on the project have been resolved.
The foreign minister said the two sides expressed satisfaction over the resolution of all issues that had delayed a final agreement. Qureshi added that the Iranian and Pakistani presidents had tasked their foreign ministers to agree on a “mutually convenient date for signing the agreement” after their hour-long talks in Islamabad.
India's Oil Minister Murli Deora held talks in Pakistan last week on the pipeline project. Energy-hungry India imports more than 70 per cent of its energy needs.
Musharraf and Ahmadinejad also discussed the situation in neighbouring Afghanistan, which is battling a Taleban insurgency, and “stressed that peace and stability was vital for the region”. Qureshi said that President Ahmadinejad expressed his profound condolences over the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Reuters adds: If all goes well, construction on the project could start next year and the pipeline, linking the world’s second largest gas reserves to the fast growing South Asian economies, could be completed by 2012. It would initially transport 60 million cubic metres of gas daily to Pakistan and India, half for each country, but capacity would be raised later to 150 million cubic metres.
The Iranian president’s visit came hard on the heels of talks between the Indian and Pakistani oil ministers. The Pakistani minister said terms, such as transit fees, could be finalised in days or weeks.
The project has been discussed for years, but was given a new lease of life after India and Pakistan embarked on a peace process in 2004. Pakistan and Iran have previously said they would go ahead with the project even if India opted out. New Delhi had dropped out of trilateral talks in mid-2007, saying it wanted to resolve issues with Pakistan first.
The project has been dubbed the ‘Pipeline for Peace and Progress’ because of the mutual benefits it will bring to India and Pakistan.