The construction of the 4th branch (D) of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline is planned to be completed in 2016, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said Oct. 21.

President Berdimuhamedov made the remarks while delivering a speech at a meeting of the Council of Elders, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper said.

The China National Petroleum Corporation, or simply CNPC, has been buying gas from the Central Asia since 2009 after the launch of the first two branches of the pipeline (A and B) running from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The third branch (C) of the gas pipeline has been launched recently along the same route.

Chinaand Turkmenistan have an agreement to boost deliveries by 2020 to 65 billion cubic meters of gas, and to this end the additional fourth branch (D) is constructed through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The D branch is about 1000 kilometers long. It starts at the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, runs through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and goes to China.

Some 410-kilometer stretch of the gas pipeline will run from west to east through Tajikistan, 93 percent of the surface of which is a mountainous area.

In this regard, the construction process faces many difficulties, since the pipeline will run through 47 percent of rivers and 76 kilometers of tunnels.