Work on the implementation of Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) gas pipeline will start in Afghanistan in the next three months, the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) announced on Sunday.
 
The MoMP added that the Afghan government is fully ready to implement the project in its part of the country. 
 
In the view of Afghanistan’s growing economic cooperation and connectivity with the regional countries, it is expected that the process of implementation of the TAPI project in the country will be started in a special ceremony, said MoMP spokesman Abdul Qadeer Mutfi.
 
In October, the MoMP announced that the trans-national gas pipeline, which is being built in Turkmenistan, will reach the Afghan border in Herat by January 2018.
 
The pipeline will be 1,735 kilometers long and have the capacity of transferring 33 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India through Herat, Farah, Helmand and Nimroz provinces of Afghanistan.
 
MoMP says that Afghanistan is ready to secure the implementation of the project in Afghanistan’s territory.
 
“We hope that the practical implementation of the project is launched soon,” said Abdul Qadeer Mutfti.
 
Afghanistan is expected to get $500 million in transit duty annually from the project.
 
“When the interests of both India and Pakistan are served through the project, they will no longer continue their rivalry on Afghan soil,” said economist Haseeb Mauhid.
 
The 1,814-kilometre (1,127 mi) pipeline will run from gas fields in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. It starts from the Galkynysh gas field.
 
In Afghanistan, TAPI pipeline will be constructed alongside the Kandahar–Herat Highway in western Afghanistan, and then via Quetta and Multan in Pakistan. The final destination of the pipeline will be the Indian town of Fazilka, near the border between Pakistan and India.