Separate consortiums are likely to develop a 2,670-km tri-nation pipeline to deliver Iranian gas to India via Pakistan, a media report Tuesday said.

Quoting informed sources, Dawn said the Pakistan-India joint working group on the pipeline had held preliminary discussions in New Delhi last week.

Initially, Pakistan and India would appoint separate consultants to work out specifics relating to the $4 billion pipeline, which would run 1,115 km in Iran, 705 km in Pakistan and 850 km in India.

Pakistan's investment in the project would be around $1 billion for a pipeline from the Iranian border to the Indian border.

The sources said Interstate Gas Company Ltd, which would execute the Pakistani portion of the project, was well placed to raise $1 billion from the surplus liquidity available with the local banking sector against government guarantees.

The sources said technical experts in India "had no two opinions about the importance of the pipeline and the sovereign guarantees offered by Pakistan for its security within its boundaries under an international agreement.

"During (last week's) discussions, the Pakistani authorities were informed that the Indian authorities were convinced that (an overland) gas import plan was a must for cities in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, as also (New) Delhi, because transportation of gas from Qatar and Iran (through other routes) was not economically feasible," Dawn said.