India stands by Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project

Mumbai: India has claimed that it continues to be part of the original tri-nation gas pipeline project despite a decision by Iran and Pakistan last week to pursue the project on their own, but said reaching a pact depends on settling transit issues with Islamabad.

"We have never said that we are pulling out of the IPI project. We are part of the project and will continue pursuing import of gas from Iran through the three-nation pipeline," petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan said.

Iran last week said it would sign a gas sale agreement with Pakistan by October-end even if India fails to settle bilateral gas pricing issues with Pakistan.

India said it had informed Iran that it would not attend the meetings till it settled the transit fee issue with Pakistan much before last week''s technical and official level talks in Tehran on the pipeline, Srinivasan said.

Iran and Pakistan, however, went ahead with the talks ignoring India''s concerns.

India and Pakistan had earlier reached an understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan for wheeling gas through the 1,035-km segment of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline in that country, but the two have not yet arrived at any agreement on payment of a separate transit fee to Pakistan for using its territory.

"We hope to settle the transit fee issue with Pakistan after their presidential elections. Once we do that, we will go to Tehran for a tri-nation pact," Srinivasan said.

He said India had informed Pakistan of the need for reaching an agreement on transit fee before any tri-nation pact on the pipeline.

Besides the issue of transit fee, India and Pakistan would also have to finalise between them the response to Iran''s request for ''price revision'' clause in the pipeline pact.