KABUL: Resumption of work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) would take place after acquisition of lands along the project route, an official said the other day.
“Our technical team is working with that of Turkmen officials. We are trying to finish the acquisition of lands to practically resume the project,” said Ahmad Wali Haqmal, a spokesman of the Ministry of Finance told media.
According to him, the financial problems of the project have earlier been solved.
Meantime, Deputy Minister of Economy Abdul Latif Nazari said that the TAPI pipeline project was important for the trade and transit of Afghanistan and the region and that the ministry was attempting to attract investment for this project. China
Few days ago, a coordination meeting was also held in Kabul, where head of the TAPI pipeline project Mohammad Murat Imanov, Turkmen Ambassador to Kabul, Khawja Oziyov met with the country’s deputy Finance Minister Mohammad Nazir Kabiri, Director General of state-run companies Nawid Ahmad Azem and some other officials.
The meeting resolved to soon practically start work on the TAPI project, with the ministry of finance officials pledging cooperation via an expert technical team to soon resume the work.
The country’s acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Mawlavi Amir Khan Muttaq met with his Turkmen counterpart Raºit Meredow and discussed TAPI and TAP and other important projects, on the sideline of third Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Afghan Neighboring Countries held in China.
The gas pipeline project is expected to be started from Turkmenistan and extended to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan. Afghanistan would benefit much from the mega economic project as the pipeline has the longest route to cross inside the country to reach the two heavily populated neighbors. The Kabul Times
TAPI project to resume after land acquisition, official
