"I specifically raised the GUSA project issue with Pakistan, which indicated it had no objection to India becoming part of the project, but there was not an equal enthusiasm here (in Qatar) when we raised the issue", Mani Shankar Aiyar said of the project which is an initiative between Qatar and Pakistan. There are many technological problems to be addressed, both in economic and technological terms, in order to ensure the feasibility of constructing a subsea pipeline that would take gas from one of the world's largest suppliers to one of the largest-growing consumers, the combination of India and Pakistan, said Aiyar. He later told reporters that, up to a point, a similar project has already been undertaken with the Blue Stream pipeline across the Black Sea, but in the Indian Ocean there is the obstacle of great depth making it hard to lay underwater pipeline. "There are serious problems to be tackled. For us to get gas via pipeline makes life easier than bringing LNG by sea, where there is so much competition", he said, adding that despite the technological complexity nothing is beyond human ingenuity. Asked what would be the Indian contribution to such a project, Ayiar said the financing should not pose a problem. "It is so important for us to get the energy, so the capital cost of this project is no longer the major obstacle it used to be when our foreign exchange was less. Today, India's foreign exchange reserve is $143bn and the highest cost projected for the overland pipeline from Iran via Pakistan to India is $7bn", he said. However, he added, in the meanwhile there is a need to work up a proposal since there are three routes being considered, between India and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Pakistan and Iran. "It is not going to be difficult to bring them together", he said. He also said that the working groups from India, Iran, and Pakistan are looking at the issue, and that by the end of December progress should be made.