The Indian government has approved an agreement to build a $7.6 billion pipeline from Turkmenistan to deliver gas to India, the Times of India reported on Friday.
The 1,735 km pipeline, to be built by 2016, will run from southeastern Turkmenistan into Afghanistan and finally via Pakistan to India. The pipeline’s capacity will stand at 90 million cubic meters of gas a day or over 30 billion cubic meters per year.
India and Pakistan will get 38 million cu m each, while Afghanistan will receive 14 million cubic meters. The countries will hold further talks on the terms of the deal soon.
Turkmenistan is trying to diversify its gas export routes, as most of its Soviet-era pipelines deliver the fuel only to Russia. Ashgabat launched a Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline in 2009 and also sells gas to Iran.