ASHGABAT (Sputnik) — Participants of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project are nearing completion in talks on the pipeline's construction, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said Saturday.
"The negotiations on the TAPI are nearing the end, and we are standing on the eve of a momentous event — the beginning of the construction of the pipeline," Berdimuhamedov said during talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Turkmen leader emphasized that the implementation of the project will give Afghanistan as a transit country $1 billion and create more than 12,000 jobs there.
The 1,100-mile pipeline with projected capacity of 792.5 billion gallons per year starts in southeastern Turkmenistan, where the largest gas fields in the country are located, and ends at the Pakistani-Indian border, passing through the territories of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
During the talks, India offered Turkmenistan to join the International North-South Transport Corridor project, which aims to increase trade between India, Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, and others through the connection of the Indian port of Mumbai with the sea ports of Iran in the Persian Gulf.
