Leaders of of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India broke the ground for gas pipeline project in Mari on Saturday.

Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari attended the official ceremony to initiate construction of the TAPI gas pipeline project.
TAPI gas project was one of the main topics of Saturday Turkmenistan’s neutrality conference in Ashgabat.
All high ranking officials from the TAPI countries attended the neutrality conference and stressed the importance of TAPI gas pipeline for booming the regional economy in their lectures.
Many heads of states from around the world in particular the Common wealth States as well as the Iranian Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri have attended the ceremony.
The 1735 Kilometers long TAPI pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan in to Pakistan and India.
The original project was started on 15 March 1995 when an inaugural Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Turkmenistan and Pakistan for a pipeline was signed.
On 24 April 2008, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan signed a framework agreement to buy natural gas from Turkmenistan. The intergovernmental agreement was signed on 11 December 2010 in Ashgabat.
Construction on the project started on December 13 in a ceremony held today in Mari city of Turkmenistan.
The project is expected to be completed by December 2018.