The so called TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipelin) has long been an idea, and over time it has seen work start and stop several times. But now the time for its completion may be ripe. The project involves a pipeline of 1100 miles for 10 billion dollars in investments. The pipeline consortium was announced at the end of 2014, although the project was first planned in 1991. Construction began in 2018 with a scheduled start date for 2021, but it stalled just during the same year after some workers who were cleaning the route were killed by unknown attackers.
Of course, after almost a decade, the project’s estimated costs of USD 10 billion may no longer be current and an update of the figures could cause further delays to the Asian Development Bankfunded effort. For the moment, work is scheduled to resume in September 2022. Turkmenistan will lend Afghanistan funds for its part of the project, to be repaid with gas transit revenue.