Turkmen president: 2015 start for pipeline work

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) -- Turkmenistan's president has demanded that construction work begin in 2015 on a pipeline that will carry natural gas from his energy-rich country to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov said all the agreements required for the project's launch should be completed this year, state media in the Central Asian nation reported Friday.

A memorandum of understanding between the four countries linked by the TAPI pipeline was signed in 2010 and a supply deal was completed in 2012.

According to the project specifications, the 1,735-kilometer (1,140-mile) pipeline will cost around $8 billion to complete and have an annual capacity of 33 billion cubic meters of gas.

The pipeline will cross the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar and end in the Indian-Pakistani border town of Fazilka.