CASA-1000 power line project suspended

The CASA-1000, a $1.2 billion project to build a power line between Central Asia and South Asia has been suspended due to the economic and humanitarian crises in Afghanistan.

The project aims to allow Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan which have an extensive network of hydroelectric power plants to sell excess energy to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the summer months.

Faizali Samiyev, the head of the Tajik project implementation office, said work on the project, originally scheduled to be completed next year, continued in three countries, but not in Afghanistan, Reuters reported.

Funding for the CASA-1000 project – which was designed to provide Pakistan with 1,000 megawatts (MW) of power and Afghanistan with 300 MW – has been suspended, Samiyev said.

“(We hope that) contacts will be established with the Afghan side and ways to implement the project will be worked out,” he said.

Abdul Latif Nazari, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of economy, said that the government will pave the way for the implementation of CASA-1000 project in Afghanistan.

The World Bank, a key CASA-1000 backer, continues financing projects in Afghanistan, but is focusing on urgently needed education, agriculture, health and family programmes and is disbursing money through United Nations agencies and international aid groups.