Iran-India-Pakistan gas pipeline project on: Govt

Srinagar, Jun 18: India today said the massive seven billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project was on, but refused to give any definite time frame for signing a deal on it.

''The project is definitely on. We are very keen and sure that the deal will be signed...but we can't say when and how soon. We cannot give a definite time frame for it,'' Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora said at a conference here.

He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had termed the project as a pipeline for peace and progress.

''We are giving finishing touches to the deal. Most of the issues have been resolved. We have had extensive discussions with Iran and Pakistan recently,'' Mr Deora said.

He said the officials from the two countries would visit India next month to hold further discussions on the project.

The Union Minister said the discussions would now be focused on price formula, transportation and transit fee.

''We hope the remaining part, which is just some clauses of the sale and purchase agreement of the gas, will be concluded hopefully during our next discussion,'' he added.

The proposed 12,670-km pipeline will initially carry 60 million cubic metres (2.2 billion cu ft) of gas from Iran to be exported daily to Pakistan and India, half for each country.

Under the plan, the pipeline capacity from Iran, which has the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia, would be later increased to 150 million cubic metres.

The US is opposed to the pipeline project, which aims to feed the growing needs of the energy-hungry subcontinent, because of Iran's disputed nuclear programme.

The peace pipeline has been under discussion for nearly 15 years now, but had earlier made slow progress due to political differences between India and Pakistan, as well as international tension over Iran's nuclear programme.

UNI