KABUL - India has reiterated its strong commitment to the execution of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project by 2017, a media report said on Wednesday.

President Parnab Mukherjee held out the commitment at a meeting with Turkmenistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Rashid Meredov in New Delhi, the Times of India reported.

"India is deficient in energy resources whereas Turkmenistan is rich in hydrocarbon. Our common endeavor should be to build enduring ties between our countries, based on a long-term energy partnership,” Mukherjee said.

Calling the project mutually beneficial for economic reasons, he said it was also important for bringing peace and development to the region.

An agreement on supplying natural gas from resource-rich Turkmenistan via Afghanistan to Pakistan and to India was signed in May 2012.

The 1,735-km pipeline will run from Dawlatabad via Herat and Kandahar provinces before stretching to Pakistan and India.

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank-supported scheme, long delayed by security concerns in the region, will cost around $9 billion (about 450 billion afs).

A feasibility study for the gas pipeline, which will deliver 34 billion cubic meters of gas annually and earn Afghanistan $430 million a year in transit fee, has already been completed. (Pajhwok)