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Richa Mishra

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New Delhi, May 18 GAIL (India) Ltd could become a consortium partner in the Pakistan-India portion of the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project.

A senior official said, “In the portion of the pipeline being constructed from Pakistan to the Indian border, it has been proposed that an Indian company would be a stakeholder.”

The proposal was made at the recent ministerial-level bilateral meeting between Pakistan and India on issues pertaining to the tri-national pipeline project.

The official told Business Line that as stakeholder the Indian company will also have a place in the management of the consortium.

Meanwhile, Iran is laying the pipeline on its own in its sector. Of the 2,200 km long pipeline, 1,045 km is in Iran.

Three bilateral issues were discussed at the meeting: the structure of the pipeline company which will execute and manage the project; the transportation tariff; and the transit fee.

As regards the transit fee to be charged by Pakistan, the official said it would be de-linked from the price of the gas. “The transit fee is a very small element of the total cost and it will be decided at a later stage by the respective Governments,” he said.

The principles of transportation charges have already been agreed on between the two sides for the over $7-billion pipeline project. The transportation charges will be levied on capex-plus-operating costs basis, based on international competitive bidding. India would now decide whether to have another round of bilateral talks before resuming trilateral talks on the project.

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