Pakistan will sign gas transportation and transit fee agreements, pipeline service rules and complete Front End Engineering Design (FEED) activities, under Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) project, during next fiscal year.

Official sources say the project activities, also signing of gas transportation agreement, pipeline service rules, transit fee agreement and completion of FEED work will be implemented during the new financial year (2018-19).

The project began making a tangible progress in Feb when it entered Afghanistan when Turkmenistan completed construction of the pipeline.

Inter State Gas Systems (Pvt) Limited (ISGSL), executing the project in Pakistan, initiated the FEED activities of the project in March last year.

A project of 1990’s witnessed many ups and downs finally got a push this time. The government made it a key component of the government’s National Energy Policy to import gas.

The pipeline would help increase power generation capacity to meet country’s future energy needs, create more jobs and strengthen national economy.

Under the project, a 56-inch diameter 1,680 km pipeline, having capacity to flow 3.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) gas, would be laid from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan up to Pak-India border, which is scheduled to complete in the year 2020. Funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Pakistan and India would be provided 1.325 bcfd gas each besides 0.5 bcfd gas for Afghanistan.Pakistan, as reports claim is expected to achieve financial close of the pipeline this year.