DUSHANBE, August 6, 2008, Asia-Plus — To overcome power shortage and increase trade and economic activities for building confidence among member nations of Central Asia/South Asia Regional Electricity Market (CASAREM) Pakistan will import 1000MW electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan’s Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf remarked at the inaugural ceremony of the Fourth Intergovernmental CASAREM Conference in Islamabad on August 3, according to Pakistan’s Business Recorder. The conference was held on August 3-4.
According to him, most of the technical, financial, and legal issues pertaining to Casa (Central Asia-South Asia) 1000 have been resolved with mutual consent in a series of meetings held from July 31 to August 2. The minister said that Pakistan is facing severe power shortage due to insufficient investment in power generation and inadvertent postponement of planned hydroelectric projects in the country.
The project for import of 1000 MW from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan via Afghanistan is very vital for bringing confidence and comfort among the regional states along with boosting economic activities, he added.
The Government of Pakistan had expressed strong interest in importing 1000 MW of electricity from Tajikistan through a high-voltage transmission line to be built through Afghanistan, as the first phase of developing electricity trade with Central Asian Region, said Raja Ashraf.
He said there was equally strong Tajik government”s interest in exporting electricity via Afghanistan to enable the transit as well as in importing some quantities for its own market.
Kyrgyzstan stated its interest in adding its surplus power for export as well. All four countries also expressed strong desire to implement the project with the private sector participation.
Chairman of the State Committee for Investments and State-owned Property Management, Farrukh Hamraliyev, represented Tajikistan at the CASAREM conference in Islamabad.
The major donors are: the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank, who are providing valuable assistance to materialize Casa 1000. The project will ensure supply of electricity from both the exporting countries at 5.5 cents per unit.
We will recall that the third CASAREM conference was held in Kabul, Afghanistan on November 14-16, 2007. It followed earlier conferences held in Dushanbe and Islamabad. Participants at the Kabul meeting reviewed reports on the technical and economic feasibility and institutional aspects of the project which had been prepared with support from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. At the end of the meeting, CASAREM member countries made key decisions to move ahead with the project, which could ultimately trigger much larger development of energy resources of Central Asia and expanded electricity trade with South Asia.
The conference ended with signing of an agreement to implement a US$500 million electricity connection between Central Asia and South Asia. In its first stage, the project would transfer around 1300 Megawatts of electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
