The construction of the Afghan leg of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline project (TAPI) started on Friday, according to the Anadolu Agency's reporter on the ground.
Following the completion of the project’s 214 kilometer section in Turkmenistan, an opening ceremony for the construction of the Afghanistan leg of the project was held in the Serhetabat province of the Mary region in the south of Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan's President Gurbangulu Berdimuhamedov, Afghanistan's President Ashraf Gani and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahid Khan Abbasi attended the ceremony.
'Turkmenistan will be a bridge of knowledge between Europe and Southeast Asia with the implementation of this project,' said Berdimuhamedov speaking at the ceremony and added that cooperation between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan in the energy field is increasing daily.
Gani underlined that Afghanistan wants to set up a platform for economic cooperation and added, 'We all should understand that with this cooperation policy, our people and all of us are winners. We can get economic prosperity, stability and social security.'
'This project only has winners. I thank the three countries for contributing to the implementation of the project,' said Abbasi.
The $10-billion TAPI project is slated for completion in 2019. Pakistan and India will receive over 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas daily from the 1,800-kilometer long pipeline, while Afghanistan is set to receive 0.5 billion cubic feet daily.
Originating in Turkmenistan's Dawlatabad region, the pipeline will stretch almost 150 kilometers to Afghanistan. Some 750 kilometers of the pipeline will pass through Afghanistan's Herat, Farah, Helmand and Kandahar provinces, eventually reaching Pakistan.
Reporting by Sayed Khodaberdi Sadat in Serhetabat, Turkmenistan
Writing by Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
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