A proposed gas pipeline to transport gas from Iran to India is at last taking definite shape, with Iran acknowledging India's security concerns about an overland gas pipeline through Pakistan and agreeing to go ahead with a feasibility study of the deep-sea route option.

"We are going ahead with the study. Shortly, one of the companies which has been short-listed to undertake the feasibility study would be awarded the contract," said a senior official. "Within a year, the detailed feasibility and viability study will be completed," he said, adding the short-listed firm was among the few European firms which have the technology to lay such a pipeline.

Tehran had been pressing for the 1,600-km overland gas pipeline that will transfer gas from the Iranian oil fields in South Pars to Pakistan at a cost of $3.5 billion and then be extended on to India. India's argument in favour of the deep-sea route received a boost by a presentation made by the navy's hydrographic department and the fact that the technology for deep-sea pipeline is clearly available now. The economics of such a pipeline is also far cheaper now, as presentations made by some private companies showed.