Solar power project in Kabul inaugurated

KABUL (TOLOnews): Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, inaugurated a 10-megawatt solar power generation project worth $6.5 million in the Surobi district of Kabul near Band Naghlu. Also, his office said online that the Islamic Emirate decided to give the contract for the completion of the next 500-KW transmission line project from Turkmenistan to the Afghan Invest Company in exchange for a mining concession. This initiative is expected to facilitate the transfer of hundreds of megawatts of electricity to Afghanistan, resulting in annual savings of $200 million. At the opening of the project, Baradar said that the investment field is available for investors and a special committee has been created to facilitate their work. A private company has invested in this project. “Given the significance of electricity, the Islamic Emirate has decided to award the contract for completion of the remaining work of the 500-KW Turkmenistan electricity line project to the Afghan Invest company in exchange for a mine. This will serve as the foundation for the transfer of hundreds of megawatts of electricity to the country,” Baradar said. Meanwhile, Abdul Latif Mansour, the acting Minister of Energy and Water (MoEW), said during the opening ceremony that following the completion of the Surobi project, work on the producing of ten megawatts of electricity will begin in Tarakhel of Kabul. “The company will invest more than $6.5 million in this project, and when this project is operational and its electricity is connected, then we will give this company that capital, or in exchange for this investment, we will hand over a mine to it,” said Abdul Latif Mansour, Deputy of MoEW. “It has a direct and indirect impact on some people. If we estimate, more than one thousand people work on this project; But its direct effects are on over tens of thousands of people,” said Mohsen Sobhani, the operational manager of the contracting company. According to the Ministry of Energy and Water, Afghanistan has the ability to produce 222,000 megawatts of solar energy, and there are now six big solar power producing projects in the nation.