The Afghan government says it has taken stepped-up security measures to secure the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project as it is a major economic opportunity for Afghanistan.
The 1,814-kilometer gas pipeline will pass through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India. At least 816 kilometers of the pipeline will pass through the territory of Afghanistan.
The pipeline passes through Herat, Farah, Nimroz, Helmand and Kandahar provinces of Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, the TAPI pipeline will be constructed alongside the Kandahar-Herat Highway in western Afghanistan, and then via Quetta and Multan in Pakistan.
In Herat, the pipeline passes through Keshk, Enjeel, Guzara, Adraskan and Shindand districts. Then the pipeline continues its way through Bala Bolok and Bakwa districts in Farah and from there it goes to Dilaram district in Nimroz province. From Nimroz, the pipeline goes to Washeer and Nahr-e Saraj districts in Helmand province and continues to Maiwand, Zherai, Arghandab, Daman and Spin Boldak districts in Kandahar. From there, it enters Quetta and Multan in Pakistan.
“As far as it belongs to Afghanistan security forces, they are fully ready to maintain security of this project,” President Ashraf Ghani’s deputy spokesman Dawa Khan Minapal told TOLOnews on Friday.
Analysts said the TAPI project can bring changes in people’s lives in Afghanistan and that it will have a positive impact on the country’s economy.
“By implementation of this project, poverty will be decreased to some extent. Investment will increase, and industry owners and investors will work here,” economic affairs analyst Taj Mohammad Talash said.
“This project will reduce unemployment rate. It will provided a great chance for improvement of agriculture, industries and energy sector,” economic affairs analyst Sayed Ghias Saeedi said.
President Ghani on Friday launched work on Afghanistan section of TAPI and meanwhile attended an event on the completion of the project in Turkmenistan. Addressing the event in Turkmenistan, he said Afghanistan reconnects South Asia with Central Asia.
“Afghanistan’s policy is the connectivity policy, not separation. South Asia will be connected with the Central Asia through Afghanistan after more than a century of separation,” Ghani said. “TAPI is not a project, but an economic corridor.”
Taliban in a statement on Friday said the group will help in security of the project if needed, “because the outline of the project was first prepared during the Taliban regime” – 1996 to 2001.
According to the Taliban statement, most areas from which the pipeline passes through are under control of the group.