Islamabad, May 15: In the wake of fresh Indo-Pak peace initiatives, India has sought a guarantee from Turkeministan that it would stop gas supply to Pakistan if Islamabad blocked supplies to New Delhi in the event of a hostility. According to officials of the Asian Development Bank, the funding agency for the 3.5 billion dollar Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project, India has made "cautious inquiries" regarding supply of gas through the pipeline which is proposed to pass through Pakistan.
India, which was "initially reluctant" to take part in the project sought to know whether Turkmenistan, which would supply the gas would guarantee that it would disconnect the whole system in case Pakistan disrupted the supplies, the ADB officials were quoted as telling a Pakistani local daily. The officials said they would inform the TAP steering committee about the cautious response from India when it meets on June 6 to 8 in Ashkabad.
Pakistan has already told ADB that it has no objection to the Indian proposal. The three countries which formulated the project want India to join the project as they have no buyers or guarantors to back the funding.
They banked solely on the Indian market as its energy requirements were high. If India agrees, the gas pipelines could be laid upto Gujarat from Daulatabad in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan, a distance of about 1500 km. Bureau Report