Tajikistan's section of CASA-1000 power line almost finished

DUSHANBE. Feb 2 (Interfax) - All work related to the construction of the CASA-1000 (Central Asia - South Asia) cross-border high-voltage power line in Tajikistan is almost finished, Energy Minister Daler Juma said.

Only "issues related to adjustment and connection are left" to complete, Juma said at a press conference on Thursday.

"We are now also seeing considerable progress by our colleagues in Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. They are planning to also complete their work by the middle of this year," Juma said.

However, the situation with the implementation of the project remains difficult in Afghanistan, "where for understandable reasons the project has not moved for two years already," he said.

The ministers of Tajikistan, Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan held a meeting in December, after which they urged development partners to start financing the Afghan part of the project.

"The good news is that 30% of the work [in Afghanistan] has already been completed and 95% of the equipment has already been brought in. The negotiations that we're holding with our financial partners will make it possible to finally make a decision in the next six weeks to two months and continue financing of the Afghan side," Juma said.

CASA-1000 involves building a power line to link the power grids of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with Afghanistan and Pakistan, which will make it possible to create a common electricity market and trade electricity year-round. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will be able to export 1,300 MW of excess electricity to the South Asian countries in the summer.

The project is being supported by the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, USAID, the U.S. State Department, the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and a number of donor organizations. Construction work on CASA-1000 officially started in May 2016.