CASA-1000 to be resumed: World Bank

KABUL (TOLOnews): The World Bank said in a statement that the Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000) in Afghanistan will be resumed at the request of the three other countries participating in the project.
According to the statement, the construction of CASA-1000 in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan, has nearly been completed.
“At the request of the three neighboring countries participating in the project, the Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000) in Afghanistan will be resumed. CASA-1000 is a $1.2 billion regional project to bring clean energy from Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic to Pakistan via Afghanistan. Construction in the other three participating countries is nearly complete and these countries have requested that CASA-1000 activities in Afghanistan resume to avoid the risk of the project becoming a stranded asset. The project in Afghanistan will resume in a ring-fenced manner to ensure all construction payments and future revenue are managed outside of Afghanistan and do not involve ITA systems,” the statement reads.
This project will transfer power from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan. Through this project, 1,000 megawatts of power would be supplied to Pakistan and 300 megawatts to Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan can benefit from the internet line that passes over the power lines from the CASA-1000 project in addition to electricity. In total, the project is for 15 years, and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will sell electricity to Pakistan,” said Amanullah Ghalib, the former head of Breshna Sherkat.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy said that the Islamic Emirate is ready to start work on CASA-1000.
“CASA-1000 is an important project. The Islamic Emirate is ready to support this project with all its power. We request that donor institutions support this project and I hope the work on this project will start as soon as possible,” said Abdul Latif Nazari, Deputy Minister of Economy.
This comes as Reuters reported that the World Bank Group said on Thursday its executive board endorsed a new approach to aiding Afghanistan that will deploy some $300 million from the bank’s International Development Association fund for poor countries through United Nations agencies and other international organizations.