The Afghan Ministry of Mines and Oil has announced its readiness to start practical work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project, the Pakistani BaaghiTV agency reports.

The Ministry of Mines and Oil of Afghanistan has stated that the Islamic Emirate is fully prepared to start practical work on the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline project, the Pakistani BaaghiTV agency reports.

According to agency spokesman Homayoun Afghan, the legal and technical hurdles prior to project implementation have been removed.

Afghan Deputy Economy Minister Abdul Latif Nazari urged relevant countries and the World Bank to "focus on the TAPI project from the financial side so that all countries achieve regional goals."

The representative of the Islamic Emirate, Zabiullah Mujahid, announced several meetings with countries participating in the TAPI pipeline project.

According to Afghan economists, the TAPI project is important for the country's economic development.

"The implementation of this project will strengthen the position of Afghanistan from the geopolitical side and from the economic side, it meets the needs of Afghanistan in electricity and gas," analyst Daria Khan Bahira was quoted by a source.

The desire of Russian companies to take part in the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline in Afghanistan was recently announced by Russian Ambassador to Kabul Dmitry Zhirnov.

The implementation of the TAPI project was also discussed at the recent Turkmen-Pakistani seminar in Islamabad, where the Ambassador of Turkmenistan Atajan Movlamov noted that the issues of financing the TAPI project are not problematic.

As previously reported, the TAPI gas pipeline with a capacity of 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year will run from the Turkmen Galkynysh field through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, the Pakistani Quetta and Multan to the city of Fazilka in western India.  The total length of the TAPI gas pipeline is 1814 km, of which 207 km - through the territory of Turkmenistan, 774 km - through Afghanistan and 826 km - through the territory of Pakistan to the border with India.

The project has previously been approved by Russia, the United States and a number of other countries of the world.  ADB, EBRD, IDB, Saudi Development Fund and others have announced their intention to participate in financing TAPI.