India to discuss gas pipeline project with Iranian President

New Delhi, Apr 24 (UNI) India will discuss the early execution of Iran-Turkmenistan-India gas pipeline project during the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is arriving here on April 29.

''Since India has fallen short of all energy sources, the much talked about gas pipeline project will be discussed at the highest political level when the Iranian President arrives at New Delhi towards end of this month,'' Planning Commission Member Kirit S Parikh told reporter here.

Advocating the need for cooperative development with countries like Burma, Nepal and Bhutan for importing hydel energy to get out of power crisis, he said, '' The benefits of cooperative development and its cost should be equitably shared by the countries concerned as this project is much more feasible.'' Referring to the Indo-US Nuclear Civil Agreement, he said it should be signed without any delay to help India import uranium and set up a number of nuclear power projects.

''The nuclear power is much more cheaper and therefore with the signing of the deal, uranium imports will become much cheaper and facilitate India set up many nuclear power plants with joint venture agreements,'' he added.

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