DUSHANBE, November 20, Asia-Plus — President Emomali Rahmon yesterday presided over a meeting with participation of heads of a number of ministries and organizations.
According to presidential press service, issues related to preparations for winter, providing population with electrical power and fuel during winter months, filling consumer market with food products, speeding up construction of the Sangtuda-1 and Sangtuda-2 power plants, ensuring regular work of air, rail and motor transport, as well as enhancing agrarian, education and health sectors were major topics of the meeting.
Dwelling on the problems of providing the population with electricity, the president ordered to increase the introduced winter schedule for electricity distribution by one hour and take measures to provide further increase in supply of the daily electricity in the provinces.
The head of state underlined the necessity of introducing the Yovon heat station into operation as soon as possible and increasing capacity of the Dushanbe heat station.
It was noted that introduction of the first unit of the Sangtuda-1 into operation in the second half of December will help tackle, to a certain extent, problems of electricity supplies to the population.
The meeting also discussed ways of providing the medical and health facilities with coal and other types of fuel.
Rahmon also set specific tasks on increasing air and rail routes and maintaining the Anzob tunnel and the border-crossing point Kulma on the Tajik-Chinese border in Gorno Badakhshan.
The head of state also ordered to take adequate measures to enhance the country’s agrarian sector.
As it had been reported earlier, at the beginning of October, Tajikistan began a winter schedule for electricity distribution, under which households and offices receive electricity for only two periods a day, in the mornings and evenings, totaling six to eight hours.
On October 2, Nozirjon Yodgori, a spokesman for Barqi Tojik power holding, announced on October 2 the imposition of new rationing for electricity supplies throughout the country. The rationing went into effect in all regions, with the sole exception of the capital Dushanbe, and is the latest attempt to curb rising demand for electricity in Tajikistan following an acute shortage of electricity last winter and early spring. The new restrictions that will last through April 2008 reduced the supply of daily electrical power to eleven hours, or five hours in the morning, from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m., and six hours in the evening, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
