Saturday, September 10 2005 09:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: India and Pakistan have agreed to finalize a tripartite framework agreement by December for the 7.4 billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.

A joint press statement issued at the conclusion of the second Joint Working Group between India and Pakistan said the two sides would meet in the second week of November in New Delhi.

The statement said India has agreed to provide the Pakistan side a draft on tripartite agreement, which will be discussed in the next JWG meeting before its finalization by December.

Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has also invited Pakistani counterpart Amanullah Khan Jadoon to visit India next month, the statement said, adding the visit of Aiyar to Islamabad may then be planned for early December.

These visits would accelerate the pace of progress of this and other transnational pipeline projects, it said.

The Indian side to the JWG was led by Petroleum Secretary S C Tripathy while the Pakistani side was headed by itsPetroleum Secretary Ahmad Waqar.

During the meeting, the Indian side said it has already appointed Ernst & Young as financial consultant for IPI project and has initiated action to appoint technical and legal consultants.

Wrapping up two days of talks in Islamabad, Tripathy said the discussion between the two delegations were conducted in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and cooperation with a view to carry forward the momentum of the dialogue for early realisation of the project.

The two sides noted with satisfaction that there has been considerable progress in addressing various issues pertaining to the project since the first meeting of the JWG in New Delhi in July 2005.

The Indian side informed that they had held discussions in Iran in August 2005 after which the Iranian side has provided the technical portion of the pre-feasibility report prepared by an Iranian consultant for the project.

The main point discussed at this JWG meeting included gas reserve certification and allocation, gas quantity and build up, gas quality, system configuration and project structure.

Other matters discussed were pipeline routing, delivery points, transportation traffic, transit fee, capital and operating cost and pipeline security.

Both sides agreed that the pipeline should be safe and secure world-class project and international standards relating to health, safety and environment will have to adopted.