India, Pakistan agree on gas transport price
New Delhi: Pakistan and India have at last come to an agreement on the vexed issue of gas transportation charges providing a major breakthrough in the long-delayed $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline.

Sources said a final agreement is expected to be signed during a ministerial-level meeting in the second half of July.

Under the agreement, Pakistan will be paid a transportation tariff of $0.70-0.75 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) of gas, which is higher than the $0.55 per mBtu ($20 million annually) that New Delhi had been willing to pay earlier.

The gas will cost $4.93 per mBtu at the Iran-Pakistan border. The price of the gas in India will be about $7 per mBtu, after paying Pakistan a transportation charge and transit fee.

There are, however, a few issues to be resolved before the construction of the 2,100-km pipeline begins.

While the initial gas price has been agreed upon by the three contracting parties, there is no agreement on how frequently this price is to be revised.

Iran is said to have asked for the pricing formula to be revised every three years based on global fuel prices. India and Pakistan, however, want the price to be constant for the 25-year duration of the gas supply contract.

The pipeline is being built over the objections of the US, which is reluctant to encourage business with Iran given its aggressive nuclear policy.
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Govt targets increasing renewable energy capacity by 80,000 MW
New Delhi: The Centre is targeting up to 80,000 MW of power generation capacity through renewable sources by 2032, the Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Mr Vilas Muttemwar, said on Thursday.

Addressing the "Green Power 2007" International Conference on renewable energy here, Muttemwar said India has among the largest Government-sponsored programmes in renewable energy in the world. The country's installed capacity through renewable energy sources stood at 10,408 MW as on March 31, according to Government estimates.

Muttemwar said wind energy has been one of the big successes, with India currently occupying the fourth position globally in terms of installed wind generation capacity. The country's wind energy capacity stands at 7,094 MW, according to Government estimates.
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