KABUL - Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament) on Wednesday approved a strategic partnership deal already signed between Afghanistan and India and another agreement on a multibillion gas pipeline project.

The assembly also approved two other pacts, all presented by the parliamentary foreign affairs commission, said the panel head, Mohammad Nor Akbari. All the 18 house commissions discussed the agreements and there was no opposition from members.

Signed by President Hamid Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh last year, the strategic cooperation deal concerns India's assistance in training and equipping Afghan forces and extending cooperation in other fields after the 2014 withdrawal of foreign troops.

Akbari said one of the agreements was about the implementation of agriculture and rural development projects in western Afghanistan with support from Italy. Under agreement signed last year, Italy will provide the Afghan government 6.2 million euros for the projects to be carried out in Herat, Badghis, Farah and Ghor.

Another accord on a 1,735-kilometre pipeline, known as Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, was also approved by the legislature.

The pipeline will run from Daulatabad through Herat and Kandahar provinces before entering Pakistan and ending in the Punjab province of India.

A day earlier, mines ministry spokesman Mohammad Jawad Omar said an agreement on transit fee for the estimated $10 billion project was inked in Islamabad two days ago.

He did not reveal how much Afghanistan would earn in transit fee from the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded project.

However, according to information from the Ministry of Mines, Afghanistan will earn $400,000 million in transit fee per year.

Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi asked lawmakers to raise green cards if they were in favor of the accords and red cards if in opposition. A majority of the 127 MPs raised green cards. (Pajhwok)