Friday, May 18, 2012 -
CASA-1000 partners Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan signed a $1B on Thursday to formalize the building of a critical transmission cable to deliver electricity.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will provide the electricity, according to the deal, which has been under negotiation for the past three years. The energy exporters plan to send 1000 megaWatts (MW) of surplus electricity to Pakistan, while Afghanistan will receive 300MW, all during the summer months.
"The project is very important for Pakistan and it is in dire need of electricity for the future, and the government is taking all possible measures to complete the project," the Gulf News agency reported Pakistani Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar as saying.
Russia is ready to join several leading financial institutions to provide a $500 million investment commitment in support of an electricity power project linking Central Asia with South Asia, media outlets reported Friday.
Moscow expressed its commitment in joining the $2 billion project during a Thursday-Friday intergovernmental council meeting of the project partners in Dubai, the Islamabad-based Daily Times news agency reported.
The CASA-1000 electricity transmission initiative is planned to provide energy-poor Afghanistan and Pakistan with 1,000 megaWatts of surplus electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The project partners also agreed in Dubai to begin supplying Central Asian electricity through the electricity transmission corridor to Afghanistan and Pakistan in February 2014, the KyrTAG news agency reported.
For that to happen, thousands of miles of high-voltage power lines first need to be erected. The initial flow-through of 1,000 MW will be stepped up in stages to between 5,000 MW and 6,000 MW of power.
The event brought together government ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, along with representatives of international donor organizations.
The $865 million project has the financial backing of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), among other lenders.