India may lose out on being a part of the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project with China likely to become the beneficiary. As Iran's patience has been running out, it warned India on Wednesday against dilly-dallying on the project, supposedly under the US pressure. Addressing a media gathering in the national capital the Iranian ambassador to India, Deyed Mehdi Nabizadeh, said that China had shown keen interest in joining the 2,775 km pipeline project, aimed at delivering natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and India. "We believe India still has an opportunity to be a part of the project. But it must be mentioned that the time is running out fast," he said. The project is expected to benefit India and Pakistan, which don't have sufficient natural gas to meet their rapidly increasing domestic demand for energy. However, India has been wary about the security of the project since the pipeline would pass through the Pakistani territory. Also, there were reports that the US was pressurising India to abandon the project. As soon as word got around, China conveyed to Pakistan that it was interested in joining the project in the event of New Delhi opting out. Now Pakistan has been persuading Iran to involve China replacing India in the ambitious project. source : India Today
