Afghan, Uzbek officials sign power transmission agreement

Afghanistan and Uzbekistan officials signed a power transmission agreement on Friday at a ceremony in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

According to the agreement Afghanistan can now import electricity from Uzbekistan for the next ten years.

The Afghanistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that based on the agreement, which was signed between Chief Executive of Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat Ahmad Dawood Noorzai and Dadajon Isakulov, Chairman of the state-owned National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan, a 500-kV electricity transmission line will be built by an Uzbek company with funding of $100 million from the Asian Development Bank.

The ministry said in the first two years, 4.25 GW of electricity per hour will be exported to Afghanistan and it will be increased by 6 GW per hour thereafter.

“With the implementation of this agreement, electricity will be provided 24 hours a day to the northern, central, southern and southwestern provinces and the capital of the country,” the statement read.

Chief of Staff in President Ashraf Ghani’s office Mohammad Shakir Kargar, Acting Minister of Transport Mohammad Yamma Shams, Acting Deputy Minister for Industry and Commerce Abdul Karim Malikyar, Chief Executive of Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat Ahmad Dawood Noorzai, and Abdul Bari Sediqi, head of the Afghanistan Railway Authority attended the ceremony.

The development comes at a time Afghanistan is reliant on imported electricity, from its neighbors, including Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran.

The agreement also coincides with Acting Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar’s two-day visit to Tashkent to discuss ways to expand bilateral ties and cooperation in various sectors including irade and transport.

Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said Friday: “We hope that this historic trip will further enhance political and economic cooperation between the two countries and strengthen our relations in the fields of trade, transport, electricity, and energy.”