DUSHANBE, July 22, 2011, Asia-Plus –The 220 kV power transmission line from Sangtuda in Tajikistan to Pul-i Khumri in Afghanistan will be introduced into operation in August and Tajikistan will supply electricity to Afghanistan through September this year, Deputy Minister of Energy and Industries, Poulod Muhiddinov, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 22.
According to him, construction of the power transmission line on Afghan territory has been delayed due to unstable political situation in Afghanistan, while the Tajik part of the power transmission line was built last year.
“Under an agreement reached between the sides, Tajikistan will supply electric power to Afghanistan at 3.5 cents per one kWh and the electricity price will rise 2 percent annually,” said Muhiddinov, “Uzbekistan, for example, now supplies electricity to Afghanistan at 7.0-7.5 cents per kWh.”
During two months, Tajikistan is supposed to supply 11 million kWh of electricity per day to Afghanistan. “Since construction of two other substations in the Afghan cities of Kunduz and Pul-i Khumri will be completed only in October this year, Tajikistan will supply electricity to Afghan territory only as far as Kabul,” the deputy minister said, noting that under this project Afghanistan will receive Tajik electricity only during spring-summer period (from April through September).
A total cost the Tajikistan-Afghanistan 220 kV interconnection project is 56.5 million U.S. dollars and it is financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, and the governments of Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
On the territory of Tajikistan, the line starts in the Sanguda-1 hydroelectric plant and ends on the Tajik-Afghan border. The 220 kV Tajikistan-Afghanistan power transition line is 278 kilometers long, and 116 kilometers of it lies on Tajik territory and 162 kilometers on Afghan territory.
