Afghanistan is scheduled to host the 21st summit of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project.
Rafiullah Sediqi, spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum of Afghanistan, told Azadi Radio that officials from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are scheduled to organise the 21st summit of TAPI within two months in Kabul.
Sediqi said during this meeting the authorities of the countries involved in the project he would fix the start date of the project. Sediqi further said this was a project for 30 years and every year Afghanistan would get millions of dollars for the transit. He added that thousands of Afghans would find job through this project.
The TAPI will deliver Turkmenistan’s gas to Pakistan and then to India through Afghanistan. The project is financed by the Asian Development Bank with a cost of eight billion dollars. The Asian Development Bank in the meantime warned that the cost could go high if the project was not started and completed at the scheduled time. The TAPI project is scheduled to be completed around 2017.
