Turkmenistan, possessing enormous natural gas reserves, conducts extensive works to ensure export of gas through diversification and creation of a multiple-vector system for transportation of energy resources to global markets, said President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov at the ceremony dedicated to the start of construction of the Afghanistan section of the TAPI project.
Apart from providing solutions to important social issues in the region, implementation of the TAPI pipeline, stemming from the Galkynysh field, the world’s second-largest gas field, will also promote peace and sustainable development.
It will provide an opportunity to create thousands of new jobs.Construction of a fiber-optic line is also planned along the route of this major pipeline.The Ministry of Communication of Turkmenistan will engage in these works. 814 kilometers of fiber-optic will be laid from the border of our country, through Afghanistan to Pakistan.
With full implementation of this project, Turkmenistan will eventually play a role as an important information bridge between the countries of Europe and South-Eastern Asia.President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed that Turkmenistan attaches great significance to enhancing cooperation with the neighboring Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in the transport sphere as well.
As an example, the head of state offered the KerkiYmamnazarAkina railway, the commissioned section of the TurkmenistanAfghanistanTajikistan railroad.Just recently the Ministry of Railway Transport has fully restored the 13-km long railway to the Afghani station of Torghundi.
Implementation of this project increased the throughput of the station, reinforced its importance in Afghanistan’s trade turnover, opened up possibilities for bringing Afghan products to global markers and importing goods via the short and optimum route.
As a result, with Afghanistan’s gaining access to the countries of Asia-Pacific, conditions will be created to turn it into an important element of international transport corridors passing through the territory of Central Asia along the NorthSouth and EastWest routes, said the President of Turkmenistan.
By linking the brotherly country to the International seaport of Turkmenbashy, this road will give it the opportunity to reach Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and European countries by sea.Cooperation between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan in the sphere of energy is also gaining wider scope.
To increase the volumes of electric energy exported to the brotherly country, we are consistently building new stations and power lines.The start to the laying of another one of them, the 500 kW TurkmenistanAfghanistanPakistan power line, apart from providing energy to the facilities along the route of the TAPI pipeline, will also provide an opportunity to export it through Afghanistan to Pakistan and the countries of South-Eastern Asia.
The head of Turkmenistan stated that implementation of these integration projects gives broad way to enhance effective cooperation between the countries of the region and increase their economic potential.