CASA 1000 mega regional electricity project involving Pakistan faces setback
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KABUL - CASA 1000 mega regional electricity transmission project faces delay.
Officials from Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), the country’s power utility company, on Saturday said work on construction of CASA-1000 power project has been delayed for eight months due to some certain reasons including that of financial.
According to DABS Chairman Amanullah Ghalib, the company has not paid the 17 percent of the pre-paid money for the company which has contracted Afghanistan part of the project.
Based on the timeline, work on the project was supposed to kick off by the end of 2018; however, Ghalib said the work will start by the end of 2019.
“The CASA-1000 contract is related to the Tajikistan and Pakistan parts of the project,” Ghalib said. “The signing of contract on installation of substations in Pakistan and Tajikistan in September, the timeline of the project was affected and therefore seven to eight months of delay is expected.”
Analysts said delay in regional projects is a “big damage” for Afghanistan’s economy in coming years.
“When government fails in such big projects, people suffer the main loss,” said Taj Mohammad Talash, an economic affairs analyst.
CASA-1000 is one of the biggest power projects that transfer 300 megawatts of electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan.