ZAHEDAN, Sistan-Baluchestan, Dec. 29--A senior gas industry official said here on Thursday that the proposed Peace Gasline will, in addition to supplying gas to India and Pakistan, provide five Iranian provinces with the much-needed fuel.

Reza Kasaei-Zadeh, deputy oil minister and managing director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), told IRNA that the pipeline will transfer gas from the hydrocarbon-rich Asalouyeh region, south of Iran, to the impoverished southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Pakistan.

The so-called Peace Gasline ’will transfer gas to Pakistan (and then India) via the Iranshahr border’, he said, adding that the pipeline will meet the demands of Bushehr, Fars, Hormuzgan, Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces on its way to the Iran-Pakistan border.

He said the project to construct the pipeline was endorsed by the government last year and that work currently shows a 15-percent physical progress.

The 56-inch pipeline will transfer 60 million cubic meters of gas to the five provinces daily in the first phase, he said, adding that the 900-kilometer gasline is expected to become operational in the next two years.

He said the project has 10 sections, each of which is implemented by one contractor.