The major Indian gas buyers will visit Tehran early in March to push for the revival of a $4.5bln undersea gas pipeline between Iran and India, said a source familiar with the matter, India Times reported on Monday.
The Indian delegation will also discuss a plan aimed at transporting gas from Central Asian Republic of Turkmenistan to India through this pipeline.
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline was formally launched last in December 2015. The proposed 1,400-km pipeline would transport natural gas via the Oman Sea and Arabian Sea from Iran to India.
India dropped out of the $4.5bln undersea project under US pressure but a recent opening in the business environment in Iran, following the termination of anti-Tehran sanctions, has prompted Indian leaders to make a fresh bid for the pipeline.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany started to implement the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on January 16.
After the JCPOA went into effect, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the European Union, the Security Council and the US were lifted.
The nuclear agreement was signed on July 14, 2015 following two and a half years of intensive talks.