NEW DELHI A natural gas pipeline linking Iran and India via Pakistan would be more secure and less expensive than a deep-sea link, the director and defense expert said.

According to the ***** Hindustan Times, ***** an English daily from New Delhi, the director of India's Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis, Jasjit Singh on Thursday said that India can use the Iran-India overland gas pipeline, an old but politically-sensitive proposal, as a pressure point on Pakistan to rein in the Jehadis and improve the political climate for better economic partnership.

That is provided a multinational firm and multilateral funding were involved in building the pipeline, he said adding that the benefits from implementing the project far outweigh the perceived security threat.

Singh said the pipeline is essential if India is to sustain its current, modest rate of GDP growth. In fact, precious time has been lost by chasing alternatives like transporting gas from the Persian Gulf through undersea pipes or in ships by first making it liquid and then reconverting it to gas.

"These are expensive alternatives and in no way safer than the land option," Singh said.

He said Pakistan would never agree to a pipeline over its continental shelf. A deep-sea pipeline would be vulnerable to threats from the Pakistan Navy.

The land option, according to him would enjoy the guarantee of the Pakistani government. Islamabad has given a unilateral undertaking that it will not disrupt the supply line to India.

Secondly, international financial institutions would extract heavy compensation from the Pakistan government if it did not prevent the Jehadis from damaging the pipeline. And third, Pakistan would stand to gain an annual transit fee of about $700 million.

(IRNA)