Islamabad: The development work on the North-South Pipeline is expected to begin soon — with the move following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) case — a news source reported on August 20.
The pipeline project was initiated in 2015 as a collaborative venture between Pakistan and Russia. It is intended to bring imported liquefied natural gas from the southern parts of the country towards the north; particularly, for use by industries in Punjab. The pipeline was planned as the existing infrastructure does not allow for large amounts of additional gas volumes to be transported from the south to the north.
Reportedly, the Supreme Court made the decision to direct the federal government to start developing the North-South Gas Pipeline in six months. At the same time, work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline is also expected to begin as soon as the development work has reached an appropriate level in Afghanistan. Similarly, work on the Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline will also begin once the international sanctions against the former country have been lifted.
