Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'A great project but can it be implemented?' that was published in Newsband

A great project but can it be implemented?

Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline came one step closer to reality The pipeline, that is set to cross over 1,700 km, through Herat and Balochistan before reaching the Indian Punjab border, and will draw from the world’s second largest natural gas field of Galkynysh, comes full of promise. It reconnects South Asia to Central Asia, in the way it was before the British Empire sealed it off. It will also bring India and its neighbours much needed energy at competitive pricing. TAPI’s success will ensure that India, Pakistan and Afghanistan find ways of cooperating on other issues as well.

However, the project faces the challenge of terrorism today. Unless the pipeline is secured from the Taliban that operates on both sides of the Durand Line, and from militant groups operating in Pakistan, the project cannot be implemented.

It is indeed a strategic accord signed between TAPI nations as it will bloom up India's energy requirement. Another advantage is TAPI gas pipeline project has brought a new face in the relation of all three countries and projects a better image of foreign policy at International level. It is evident from this that countries concerned in this project are mainly oriented to meet their energy requirement as per their needs. What is required from this is the transparency and accountability.

Despite the difficulties of Taliban and other extremists the plan needs to be operationalized within estimated time not only for meeting our countries' energy needs but also for sending message that these countries will not let their nations' interests hurt by their petty differences or by extremists.

One of the main reasons for the non take-off of the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, which too was touted as ‘peace pipeline' in the late 90s, was the issue of terrorism. There were other issues of exorbitant transit fees by Pakistan and the American sanctions that kicked in much later. In order to circumvent both security and transit fee issues, it was suggested to have an under-sea pipeline though at some points the depth was 3 Kms. It was technically challenging yet feasible even then and the same can be used for TAPI.