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MUMBAI (Reuters): India and Iran will hold bilateral talks this week in New Delhi to discuss the progress of a proposed $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline and a separate liquefied natural gas deal between the two nations.
Iran's deputy oil minister, Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian, is scheduled to participate in these discussions on December 28 and 29, after arriving in India on Tuesday evening.
"The biggest challenge before us today is to find a way as to how do we structure the project in a consensual way," an official from the Indian oil ministry, who did not wish to be identified, told Reuters on Monday.
The official said the three countries had mutually agreed to set a four- to six-month target to finalize the tripartite agreement on the natural gas pipeline project.
Meanwhile another report adds, India and Pakistan are putting the finishing touches to a new rail link between the two countries, 40 years after Pakistani fighter jets bombed the tracks as a train darted across a desert border crossing.
The passenger train, connecting Munabao in India's western desert state of Rajasthan and Khokrapar, a border village in Pakistan's Sindh province, is expected to run again from next month as the old rivals open another transport link as part of a slow peace process.
At Munabao, a small town known mainly as the last stop for the train to Pakistan, India has built a gleaming new station and workers are rushing to spruce up the terminal ahead of the inauguration.
A date for the launch is yet to be set, but Indian officials said they would be ready to start the service by Jan. 1.
Locals are elated over the prospect of being able to meet friends and relatives separated from them after India was partitioned in 1947 and Pakistan created.
Meanwhile another report from London adds, an Iranian delegation along with its Pakistani and Indian counterparts discussed the means and procedures for the implementation of the Peace Pipeline project, MNA said.
Major issues regarding the project implementation, most important of which are the supply and delivery of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran to India, have been the main topics that were supposed to be discussed by the three countries? officials, noted managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) Rokneddin Javadi.
Also, the officials were to identify and prepare the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the Iranian, Indian and Pakistani officials, Javadi said adding, the next meeting of the authorities is slated for late January.
He also commented that he didn?t think the project contract would be signed within the short period left to the end of January. The main issues on the way of the project implementation including the exploitation of the natural gas, participation of the international companies in the project and the similar subjects should be first identified, defined and agreed upon.
Referring to the LNG export to China he pointed out that, although the Chinese officials were supposed to come to Iran and provide Tehran with the final views of their government in that regard, it seems that their discussions have taken long and further talks on the proposal is deferred until after the end of the Christmas holidays.
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