India, Iran to go ahead with gas pipeline project

NEW DELHI: The proposed gas pipeline to transport gas from Iran to India is at last taking definite shape, with Iran acknowledging India's security concerns about an overland gas pipeline through Pakistan and agreeing to go ahead with the feasibility study of the deep-sea route option.
"We are going ahead with the study. Within the next few days, one of thecompanies which has been short-listed to undertake the feasibility study would be awarded the contract," a senior official told IANS.
"Within a year, the detailed feasibility and viability study will be completed," he said, adding the short-listed company was among the few European firms which have the technology to lay such a pipeline.
"Unless there is a substantive and radical improvement in the credibility of Pakistan as a transit point soon, whatever the academic world may say, the deep sea route will be the preferred option," the official said, adding, "the onus in entirely on Pakistan."
The decision to put the proposal for the overland route through Pakistan "on the back burner" was taken at the third meeting of the Indo-IranianCommittee on transportation of natural gas from Iran to India in Tehran last week. The Indian side was led by K.V. Rajan, secretary (east), in the external affairs ministry and the Iranian side, by Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Mohammed Hossein Adeli.
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