The representatives of the Afghan ministries of interior affairs and defense presented a security plan for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project to the Turkmen Ambassador to Kabul Hoja Ovezow and the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited CEO Muhammetmyrat Amanov in a meeting in Kabul on Wednesday.
The Turkmen delegation told the security officials that practical work on the TAPI project would begin in the coming days, the Afghan online newspaper Hasht-e Subh reported on Thursday.
The TAPI pipeline is expected to carry 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas each year along a route stretching 1,800 km from Galkynysh, the world's second-biggest gas field in Turkmenistan, to the Indian city of Fazilka near the Pakistan border.
The Afghan section of the TAPI pipeline will run from the northwestern border with Turkmenistan, south through the western city of Herat to Kandahar near the border with Pakistan.