Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Afghanistan plans to sign a ten-year agreement with Uzbekistan in September of this year for the supply of electricity on a take-or-pay basis through the Surkhan-Puli-Khumri transmission line, Trend reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.
Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan for Afghanistan Ismatulla Irgashev discussed this topic with Senior Adviser to the President of Afghanistan on infrastructure projects, acting Minister of Finance Humayun Kayumi at a meeting held in Kabul on July 29, 2019.
The parties expressed interest and willingness to jointly implement infrastructure projects in the energy, transport and communications sectors.
Earlier, Trend reported that Uzbekistan and Afghanistan are planning to sign a ten-year contract for the supply of electricity on a take-or-pay basis in October, 2019.
The new power line Surkhan-Puli-Khumri, which is being built by Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, will increase the supply of electricity to six billion kWh per year. The total cost of the project is $150 million, of which $118 million is invested by the Afghan side and $32 million by the Uzbek side.
The 500 kilowatt line from Surkhandarya to Afghanistan will allow exporting three times more electricity than now.
The funds for the construction of the line will be allocated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to the Afghan side. ADB took an exceptional step - they agreed to fund this line without holding any international tenders.
The only condition for ADB to finance construction was that the Afghan side should conclude a ten-year take-or-pay contract with Uzbekistan. That is, even if Afghanistan does not need electricity, it will still have to pay.
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