The Islamic Emirate spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says the work of the Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000) in Afghanistan will officially begin by the end of April with the financial support of the World Bank.
“We believe that Inshallah, this will be a vital project for the region and will help the nation a lot in the electricity sector. The work of this project will start by the end of April, Inshallah, it will begin one and a half months later,” said Mujahid.
Mujahid added that the contract to transfer electricity from Central Asia to South was signed on Friday in Turkey between the countries of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Da Afghanistan Breshan Sherkat (DABS) has gone to Turkey to discuss with the countries involved in this project and the World Bank.
DABS officials said that there have been meetings between the involved countries in the last two days about how to start this project.
The request for the resumption of CASA-1000 project was made by Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan in December last year.
“Afghanistan is currently a country that can level the ground for domestic and foreign investors to invest in the electricity generation sector in all its projects,” said Hekmatullah Maiwandi, DABS spokesman.
It should be stated that CASA-1000 project will transfer electricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to South Asia through Afghanistan.
In the meantime, economic experts say with the completion of this project, Afghanistan will witness the expansion of economic interactions and the first corridor of electricity transmission from Central Asia to South Asia.
“This is the idea that needs to be adapted and I wish that Afghanistan’s management may be excellent in its transit sector, and this movement creates regional beliefs,” said Sayed Masoud, a university professor.
Earlier, It was estimated that with the completion of this project, Afghanistan would earn about 45 million dollars annually from electricity transit from its territory to Pakistan.
The electricity transmission lines of this project will pass through seven provinces and 35 districts in Afghanistan and then reach Pakistan.
It was said before that the implementation of this project inside Afghanistan would cost 225 million dollars.
Meanwhile, based on the announcement of the World Bank, the construction work of the CASA-1000 project in Pakistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is about to be completed.