Pakistan is interested in the early implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline construction project, the leading Pakistani media say.

The Minister of Energy of Pakistan, Muhammad Hammad Azhar, in a conversation with the Turkmen Ambassador to Islamabad, Atajan Movlamov, expressed interest in the early completion of the construction and commissioning of the TAPI gas pipeline. The head of the Pakistani Ministry of Energy stressed the need to work out all the details of agreements on the transportation and supply of Turkmen gas to the mutual benefit of all countries participating in the TAPI project, the Daily Times reports.

The Internet news portal Radio Pakistan, commenting on the meeting of the Ambassador of Turkmenistan with the Minister of Energy of Pakistan, notes that Atajan Movlamov in the conversation reported on the progress made by the Turkmen side in the implementation of the TAPI project.

The Turkmen diplomat assured the Pakistani minister that all issues related to the implementation of the project, including the financing and safety of the pipeline, are being thoroughly worked out, Radio Pakistan emphasizes.

In September 2020, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, in a telephone conversation with President of Pakistan Arif Alvi, discussed the timing of the start of construction of the TAPI gas pipeline on Pakistani territory.

Turkmenistan is expected to start construction of the TAPI gas pipeline in Afghanistan in 2021.

The total length of the TAPI gas pipeline is 1,814 km, of which 207 km is on the territory of Turkmenistan, 774 km is on the territory of Afghanistan and 826 km is on the territory of Pakistan to the border with India.

The pipeline has a design capacity of 33 billion cubic meters. cubic meters of gas per year will pass from the Turkmen Galkynysh field through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, Pakistan's Quetta and Multan to the city of Fazilka in western India.

The construction of the Turkmen section started in December 2015, and the laying of the Afghan section of the gas pipeline took place in February 2018. The project has received the approval of Russia, the United States and a number of other countries around the world. The intention to participate in the financing of TAPI was announced by the ADB, the EBRD, the IDB, the Saudi Development Fund, etc. It is estimated that the total cost of the project will be $8-10 billion.