Potential World Bank $200m allocation to increase electricity capacity
- Written by Interfax
DUSHANBE, Dec 28 (Interfax). The World Bank might allocate a $200 million loan for the construction of electricity transmission lines from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan (CASA-100) project), Tajikistan's Energy and Industry Ministry said in a statement.
"The country participants in the CASA-1000 project have received a concise signal from the World Bank about its possible participation in the project. This concerns a $200 million loan, which would be divided among all participants in the project," the statement said.
The cost of the CASA-1000 project is estimated at around $1 billion. Russian energy companies and Asia Development Bank are among the potential investors in the project.
Tajik presidential advisor on economic policy, Nematdzhon Buriyev, told journalists that the transmission lines in the CASA-1000 project might continue on to Kazakhstan, thereby forming a power system for Central and South Asia.
Uzbekistan has come out against the implementation of this project, saying that the construction of the CASA-1000 project would only be feasible with the construction of the Kambarat Hydroelectric Power Plant in Kyrgyzstan and the Rogun HPP in Tajikistan located, respectively, in the upstream regions of the Syr-Darya and Amu-Darya rivers. According to Uzbekistan, the construction of hydroelectric dams would cripple the country's agricultural sector because of the expected subsequent decrease in water inflow.
