KABUL (TCA) — Afghanistan’s Ministry of Energy and Water said that work on the Central Asia-South Asia (CASA-1000) electricity transmission project will start in the near future and an Indian company has won the tender for the Afghan part of the project, TOLOnews agency reported.
The World Bank has pledged to finance the Afghan part of the project which will cost an estimated $404 million USD.
The ministry said the Afghan government has outlined a comprehensive program for the implementation of the project.
“After the processing of supply works and bidding, a company was selected to implement the project; during the negotiation process, we also managed to get discounts from the concerned company; luckily, the World Bank also showed its agreement, the final agreement will be signed soon,” said Afghan deputy minister of energy and water Abdul Basir Azimi.
Meanwhile, a number of economists have suggested the Afghan government move forward on the basis of a project strategy and also boost its management capacity for better implementation of the project.
The CASA-1000 project will include:
– 500 kV AC line from Datka (in the Kyrgyz Republic) to Sugd-500 (477 kilometers away, in Tajikistan),
– 1,300 megawatt AC-DC Convertor Station at Sangtuda (Tajikistan),
– 750 kilometer High Voltage DC line from Sangtuda (Tajikistan) to Nowshera (Pakistan),
– 1,300 megawatt DC-AC Convertor Station at Nowshera.
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 562 km. The project will supply electricity from hydropower rich Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and on to India.
