APRIL 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it will support infrastructure projects in Turkmenistan, including the $10b TAPI gas pipeline and also rail and electricity links to neighbouring countries.
Over the next two years, the ADB plans to invest around $1b on construction of railway corridors and the production and supply of electricity.
On TAPI, the pipeline that should, if all goes to plan, pump Turkmen gas to India through Afghanistan and Pakistan by 2019, the ADB delivered a determined, positive endorsement.
“We’re going through some of the toughest territory in Afghanistan, so the challenge is there. There’s no doubt about it,” Sean O’Sullivan, director for Central Asia at the ADB, told Reuters the day after a $200m investment deal was signed for TAPI between its key shareholders — Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
“But I am sure it’s doable.”
The ADB has been a staunch defender of the TAPI pipeline, which many analysts have said is too complicated to pull off successfully, and advised the partners on the financing of the $10b project.
Previously, the ADB pulled funding from the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway link, because of security concerns. Now, by saying that TAPI is “doable”, Mr O’Sullivan is effectively giving the ADB’s endorsement to the project, despite ongoing doubts on security guarantees.
In the meantime, construction work continued on TAPI, with Turkmen officials triumphantly announced that they had finished welding the first kilometre of the pipeline.
The other countries have reportedly started construction work too.
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(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)
