New Delhi, April 16:

India today said that despite earlier ‘hiccups’ the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, the multi-billion dollar gas transfer project, is progressing and stressed the need for trans-national pipelines to boost the energy security.

“There have been hiccups in the initial stages about the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline. But the project is moving ahead,” minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma said at a seminar here. The day-long long seminar on ‘India’s expanding markets in gas’ is organised by the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank specialising in security and policy issues. Sharma also hinted that the contours of the tri-nation pipeline may be redefined with some suggestions doing the rounds about India buying Iranian gas at the India-Pakistan border.

“We have to look at trans-national pipelines for energy security,” Sharma said while alluding to the three gas projects under consideration by India. Besides the IPI pipe-line, these include the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India and the Myanm-ar-Bangladesh-India pipeline. “We can’t say which project will be executed first. But they are under consideration,” Sharma said while stressing that trans-national pipelines are crucial for India’s energy security.