BISHKEK (TCA) — The $1 billion-plus Central Asia-South Asia electricity transmission project (CASA-1000) will be inaugurated on May 12 by top officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The project is supported by the World Bank Group, Islamic Development Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), and Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).
The Ministers of Power and Energy of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan finalized the document and decision on the implementation of the project, Khaama Press Afghan news agency reported with reference to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The inauguration ceremony will be attended by high-level government officials of the four participating countries and representative of the donor countries and organizations.
The Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan are two countries in Central Asia endowed with some of the world’s most abundant clean hydropower resources with water cascading from the mountain ranges and filling the rivers every summer. Both of these countries have a surplus of electricity during the summer. Nearby in South Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan suffer from chronic electricity shortages while trying to keep pace with a fast-growing demand for it. Pakistan cannot meet its citizens’ electricity needs, especially during the sweltering summer months, leading to frequent power cuts that hurt industrial production, sometimes close small businesses, and lead to job losses. Meanwhile millions of people still live without electricity altogether.
A new electricity transmission system to connect all four countries, called CASA-1000, would help make the most efficient use of hydropower resources in the Central Asian countries by enabling them to transfer and sell their electricity surplus during the summer months to the deficient countries in South Asia.
