TAPI gas pipeline construction to be accelerated on presidential orders

TAPI gas pipeline construction:  Turkmenistan President  Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has ordered the country’s oil and gas high command to ramp up work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline project. The pipeline had a critical role to play in the country’s ability to deliver its energy sources to world markets, he said. 
The TAPI pipeline will transport  natural gas from Turkmenistan’s Dauletaband field (and eventually from its offshore fields in the Caspian Sea) through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then on to India, and is seen by its champions  as a modern-day continuation of the  historic Silk Road trading route.
The original cost of the Originally the cost  project was reportedly estimated at $7.6 billion, although that may rise to $10 billion, but political instability in Afghanistan may prove as much of a risk to the project as the cost.The Afghan government is doing what it can to to safeguard the project and has deployed as many 7,000 security personnel to protect the route.
Berdimuhamedov’s remarks  come in a week when both the EU and Ukraine have shown a renewed interest in accessing Turkministan’s natural gas reserves through the construction of the Trans Caspian Pipeline (TAP).