ISLAMABAD – *Asian Development Bank (ADB) country director for AfghanistanSamuel Tumiwa has said the bank is committed in financing the Turkmenistan,Afghanistan and Pakistan (TAP) power project. *

He said that the economic cooperation will also help to enhancepartnerships and improve stability in the region.

“The Asian Development Bank is committed to financing TAP. We have putaside some money to finance it. Asides from the benefits from greaterelectrification, it is also good economic cooperation between thecountries.

So when we have good economic cooperation between the countries, the caseis so strong that everything else, security issues and political issues getsidelined and you get good cooperation between these countries which willbring stability in the region,” he said.

Meanwhile, officials from the power supplying company Da AfghanistanBreshna Sherkat (DABS) have said that with the implementation of TAPproject, people of certain areas lying on the TAP route will benefit fromthe electricity available through the project.

TAP 500 KV Power Project (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan) is one ofthe most important regional energy projects in the energy sector. Thememorandum of understanding for the project was signed in December 2015between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The project aims to transfer electricity from Turkmenistan to Pakistanthrough Afghanistan.

One of the TAPI projects is the 500KW electricity project in Afghanistan,which starts at the secondary-station of the region (Mari) in Turkmenistanand will run through to Turghundi port to Herat province and after crossingthe provinces of Farah, Nimroz, Helmand and Kandahar, it will run toPakistan.

The project will also include a natural gas transfer project, railway lineand fiber optic project which will pass through TAPI pipeline corridor.

According to DABS, the financial expenditure on the Afghan section of theproject will cost an estimated $70 million USD.