http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-237/0711208051164354.htm
*India, Pakistan soon to resolve transit fee issue on Iran gas pipeline New Delhi* India today said it will meet Pakistan "soon" to resolve issues such as transit fee that have stalled a trilateral agreement on the proposed multi-billion dollar gas pipeline originating from Iran. However, the country did not give a time frame for such talks. India has since August not attended any talks on the pipeline over what it called "unresolved bilateral issues" with Pakistan. "A meeting between India and Pakistan on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) project is being proposed soon," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Indian Parliament), PTI reported. New Delhi first excused itself for a bilateral meeting with Pakistan and then boycotted the September trilateral meeting in Tehran, saying it first wanted to resolve the issue of transit fee payable to Islamabad for wheeling the gas through that country. Iran and Pakistan have since held four meetings and are close to signing a bilateral pipeline deal, possibly next month. "Such multilateral projects involve protracted discussions, as all the aspects have to be carefully examined and deliberated upon to the satisfaction of the participating countries to protect each country's interests as also to avoid any future problems in the successful operation of the project," Patel said but did not give any deadline for talks. Iran's new Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari had last week said in Riyadh that the Islamic nation welcomed India's participation in the project but set no deadline for New Delhi joining the project. "Various important issues are under discussion among the participating countries," Patel said. "As such, the project can be finalized only after satisfactory resolution of the issues under discussion." New Delhi and Islamabad have reached broad understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan for wheeling the gas through the pipeline passing in that country. But the two nations have not yet agreed on payment of a separate transit fee to Pakistan for allowing passage of the fuel. Iran, Pakistan and India are to separately build pipeline segments falling under their territories. The pipeline would transport 90 million standard cubic meters per day of gas, out of which 30 mmscmd would be for internal consumption in Iran. The remaining is to be split equally between India and Pakistan. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
