No going back on India-Iran pipeline: Aiyar

Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday denied any differences within the government on the $4.16-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and said New Delhi was going ahead with the project as scheduled.

"I am exactly at the same wave length as the prime minister. The decision of going ahead with the pipeline is in accordance with his direction," Aiyar said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's comments in Washington last week that the project was fraught with risks and it would be difficult to get an international consortium of bankers to underwrite the project, were seen as contradicting Aiyar's optimism and had led to speculations that New Delhi was wary of going ahead with the project.

"I met the prime minister for one hour on Sunday and again on Monday. The message I got was absolutely clear, there is no going back. A schedule has been laid out and we are going by it," Aiyar said.

Technical, commercial, financial and legal arrangements besides involvement of international consortia of bankers and global firms for laying and operating the pipeline would make the pipeline safe and secure, he said.

There are apprehensions that any pipeline passing through Pakistan runs the risk of being sabotaged and the project itself might be held hostage for political gains. There are also apprehensions that given the US sanctions against Iran, international bankers may stay away from funding the project.

"Schedule of meetings (between India and Iran, and India and Pakistan) has been laid down till end of December and they are being maintained," Aiyar said.

Officials believe that the project could be financed on strength of Indian Oil Corp/Oil and Natural Gas Corp balance sheet and that safe delivery of gas could be ensured if technical parameters like laying the pipeline at least 1.5 meters below the ground and Pakistan drawing gas for its use from the pipeline at a point very close to Indian border were adhered to.

Besides host government agreements, corporate guarantees and stringent supply or pay agreements were being worked out to guard Indian interest.

Two separate technical groups between India and Pakistan and India and Iran are conceptualising the project structure so as to make it safe and secure and address all risks, Aiyar said asserting that the dialogue would continue.

Earlier this month, India and Pakistan decided to appoint separate financial consultants to work out a project structure for the much-delayed project to take off by early next year.