The Asian Development Bank is confident that it can overcome by 2020 the challenges of building a $10-billion gas pipeline through Afghanistan's most violent areas.
Shareholders of the planned Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) project agreed on April 7 to invest $200 million in studies and engineering for the $10 billion project.
The proposed underground pipeline will go through the southern province of Helmand, one of the most violence-hit in the country.
Sean O'Sullivan, the Central and West Asia director general of the ADB, an adviser for the project, said on April 8 that, despite the challenges, the project is "doable."
"If it happens, it will be quite an unprecedented example of regional cooperation, particularly in a region that finds it difficult to cooperate," he said in an interview with the Reuters news agency.
Under current timelines, the pipeline could be operational by 2020.