Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani has dusted off 20 year old plans to build a $10 billion, 1735 km transnational Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

Potential project stakeholders, chief among them the Asian Development Bank, have been invited to a May meeting to be held in Kabul where the initial first steps will be discussed.

While Afghanistan's precarious security situation will have a huge impact on the timing and construction of the pipeline, Ghani seems unfazed by any potential conflict and stresses the positive economic boost the pipeline will give his country: "It's not only the construction, but also the maintenance that will create permanent jobs for the life of the project," the minister said, adding that Afghanistan will buy about 16 percent of the gas from the pipeline.

Needless to say India and Pakistan are very keen to see the pipeline deliver much needed gas to help power their growing economies.