IPI pipeline doable project: India

On being asked when the deal is expected to be signed, Foreign Secy Shivshankar Menon said, "if we have an assured project we can sign tomorrow."

India on Tuesday night said the gas pipeline with Iran and Pakistan is a "doable" project though a "lot of work" needs to be done to ensure that it is commercially viable, secure and there were assured supplies.

HT Image

"We think it is doable," Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said after three-hour talks between visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.

Officials of the three countries will be meeting soon to continue discussions on the 7.1 billion-dollar project.

Asked when the deal is expected to be signed, Menon said "if we have an assured project we can sign tomorrow."

On the negotiations on gas price, he said the issue was not of treating it as a commericial transaction but to see the potential as a confidence-building measure between the three countries.