New Delhi, Feb. 13: Dinsha Patel, minister of state for petroleum, is visiting Turkmenistan to attend a three-day meeting on the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline and see if it holds any potential for India as well.

A senior petroleum ministry official said this is one of three proposed inter-country gas pipeline projects that India is pursuing. The other two are the Iran-Pakistan-India and Myanmar-India pipeline projects. India has been very hesitant to join the project as it has to pass through strife-torn Afghanistan and hostile Pakistani territory.

However, former petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had revived the proposal as part of his oil diplomacy. Both Pakistan and Turkmenistan had agreed to his proposal that India joins the group meetings as an observer with a view to later joining the project if the economics and geopolitics were conducive.