KABUL (TCA) — Officials from Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), Afghanistan’s power utility company, on February 2 said that work on construction of CASA-1000 power transmission project has been delayed for eight months due to some reasons including that of financial, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported.
According to DABS Chairman Amanullah Ghalib, the company has not paid the 17 percent of the pre-paid money for the company which has contracted Afghanistan’s part of the project.
Based on the timeline, work on the project was supposed to kick off by the end of 2018; however, Ghalib said the work will start by the end of 2019.
“The CASA-1000 contract is related to the Tajikistan and Pakistan parts of the project,” Ghalib said. “The signing of contract on installation of substations in Pakistan and Tajikistan in September, the timeline of the project was affected and therefore seven to eight months of delay is expected.”
CASA-1000 is one of the biggest power projects that will transfer electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
CASA-1000 project will start from Kyrgyzstan and will reach Afghanistan through Tajikistan and onward to Pakistan’s Peshawar city. The length of the project in Afghanistan is estimated to eventually run for 562km.
With the implementation of the project, 1300 megawatts of electricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will be transmitted to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghanistan will receive 300 megawatts of power and the remaining one thousand megawatts will be transmitted to Pakistan via Afghanistan territory.
The CASA-1000 Project is an important step in building a functioning, efficient electricity system across Central Asia and South Asia. By facilitating clean power export revenues for the Central Asian countries and by alleviating electricity shortages in the South Asian countries, this project will enhance growth prospects across both regions.
Afghanistan will receive between $40 and $50 million in transit duties from the project annually.
