DABS: Uzbekistan’s imported power returns to normal

KABUL (TOLONews): The country’s power distributor, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), said that it has been three days since the electricity imported from Uzbekistan has returned to normal.
According to the DABS officials, Kabul residents now have nine hours of electricity in 24 hours.
“We don’t have any problems right now; we have provided 9 hours of electricity for factories from 400 megawatts of electricity imported from Uzbekistan and our own domestic power output for nine hours and the work of industrialists is going on. We have also provided electricity for the citizens of Kabul for five hours during the day and four to five hours at night,” Hekmatullah Akhundzada, director of Kabul DABS, said.
However, according to the Afghanistan Chamber of Industry and Mines, industrial parks only have nine hours of electricity each day, which is insufficient to produce domestic goods.
“In the last month, the country’s industries, especially in Kabul, were halted due to the lack of electricity and about 90% of our factories were stopped, but now 50% of them returned to normal,”Sakhi Ahmad Payman, the deputy of the Afghanistan Chamber of Industries and Mines, said.
“For the industrial process, eight to nine hours of power are insufficient. For the production process, at least normally, 18 to 20 hours of power are required. In an emergency, however, just 14 to 15 hours are needed,” Mohammad Karim Azimi, executive director of the Kabul Chamber of Industries and Mines, said.
Some factory owners meanwhile said that the lack of sufficient electricity has caused the industrialists to face problems. They asked the Islamic Emirate to provide more electricity to the factory owners.
“The lack of sufficient electricity weakens the economic growth of industrialists and the residents of the country. The nation’s economy will grow on its own if the government constructs a power supply and provides residential electricity,” Khal Mohammad Tajik, a factory owner, said.
According to Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), the industrial parks of Kabul need 160 megawatts of electricity, and DABS has now been able to provide 70 to 100 megawatts of electricity for the factories of Kabul.