Mumbai: The the $7.4-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project is expected to get a big push with India agreeing to attend the tripartite talks scheduled in Tehran later this month.

The IPI gas pipeline project has been held up for long because of the Indo-Pak wrangling over transit fee.

India has also reportedly been under pressure from the US government which was opposed to the project due to Tehran's involvement. India was also unwilling to deal with a caretaker government in Pakistan that was in power for too long.

The project got a new lease of life following the intervention of Iranian President and the assumption of office by a Pakistan People's Party-led government in Pakistan.

Petroleum minister Murli Deora travelled to Islamabad in March, for talks on the IPI and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline projects.

Ahead of the Tehran meeting, Pakistan's steering committee on the pipeline project will meet here on 17 July to review the status of the gas transit fee to be paid by India for transporting Iranian gas across Pakistani territory.

Pakistan's finance secretary Farrukh Qayyum, the federal board of revenue chairman Abdullah Yousuf, planning commission deputy chairman Salman Farooqui and foreign secretary Salman Bashir, will attend the meeting, the Daily Times  reported citing petroleum ministry sources.

The steering committee is expected to review the draft GSPA and the financial impact of the IPI project on Pakistan 's economy. The pipeline is expected to bring benefits worth $2 billion to Pakistan's economy.

Fears of a war between Iran and Israel and an unsettled Pakistan's Nort-West are holding up Indian energy projects, including the decade-long Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline and various oil and gas exploration and production projects, worth over $20 billion. 

While Iran could ideally be a natural source to meet India's energy needs, politics may have a different say.