“Surveys for the project are due to be completed before October 2012 and construction can start as early as December 2012,” The Express Tribune quoted Hussain as saying on Tuesday.
The pipeline will start supplying 750 million cubic feet of gas per day starting from December 2014, he added.
Hussain explained that, the project is continuing as scheduled and the work on detailed route survey and the final front end engineering design is scheduled to be completed in September 2012.
The Pakistani official also noted that, the procurement activities of items such as pipelines, and compressors have already been started.
Pakistan faces shortage of gas due to depletion of natural resources which leave the country with small reserves not enough for producing large amounts of natural gas, he stated.
The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, projected to cost USD 1.2-1.5 billion, is aimed to export a daily amount of 21.5 million cubic meters of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
Maximum daily gas transfer capacity of the 56-inch pipeline -- which runs over 900 kilometers from Iran's southern port city of Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province to the city of Iranshahr in Sistan and Baluchestan Province -- is estimated to hit 110 million cubic meters.
Iran has already constructed more than 900 kilometers of the pipeline on its soil.
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