Ambassador: Construction of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline to start soon
The construction of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline will be started soon, Fars news agency quoted Pakistani Ambassador to Tehran Khalid Aziz Baba as saying.
He added an Iranian company will start the construction operations and the project is scheduled to be completed in December 2015.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his trip to Pakistan on November 22 emphasised the need to complete the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline according to schedule.
Iran will start building the Pakistan section of the IP pipeline by next month, IRIB quoted National Iranian Gas Company's managing director Javad Owji as saying.
The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, projected to cost $1.2-1.5 billion, is aimed at exporting a daily amount of 21.5 million cubic meters of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
Iran has already constructed more than 900 kilometres of the pipeline on its soil.
It has been planned that Iranian and Pakistani companies form a joint venture to finance the project.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said recently that President Asif Ali Zardari will soon visit Iran and the gas pipeline project would be completed according to the schedule.
According to the project proposal, the pipeline will begin from Iran's Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the south and stretch over 1100 km through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through Baluchistan and Sindh.