Ashgabat, Sep 16 (IANS): The building of the long-delayed $10 billion TAPI gas pipeline will likely start in December, an official said.

The work on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline is expected to start early in December, Khaama press quoted an official in Turkmenistan as saying.

Supported by the US and the ASian Development Bank, the gas pipeline will help Turkmenistan to find new consumers in Asia via Afghanistan.

The official said, "The Turkmen stretch of the pipeline to the Afghanistan border will be built by a (Turkmen) oil and gas pipeline construction firm."

The official also said international energy companies will join TAPI project at a later stage.

Having a length of 1,735 km (1,084 mile) the construction work of the pipeline is expected to be completed in three years.

It is also expected that the pipeline will last for 30 years with a proposed annual capacity of 33 bcm of gas.

TAPI pipeline will run more than 700 km across Afghanistan on its way to Pakistan and India.

The pipeline would contain gas from Turkmenistan's mammoth Galkynysh field, the world's second-largest reservoir of natural gas.