Afghanistan asks Tajikistan to increase the volume of electricity supplies

Almaty. February 19. Silkroadnews - Afghanistan asks Tajikistan to increase the volume of electricity supplies, the Tajik Telegraph Agency (TajikTA) reports.
“The Afghan energy company “Breshna” asked the Tajik authorities to increase the volume of electricity supplies to their country,” – the regional media reports.
After Taliban exploded few supporting structures for the power transmission lines that provided electricity from Uzbekistan to Kabul in the area of Dand-e-Shahabuddin province at the end of January, the Afghan capital has been 70% de-energized.
Previously it was reported that later Taliban also damaged the electricity pylon for the power transmission line coming from Tajikistan, however the police forces of Baghlan province managed to take the control over these structures location territories within a very short time, thus, the power supply has been restored.
Meanwhile, the repair of the power transmission line from Uzbekistan is not yet possible, as the danger of Taliban attacks still remain for this area.
The day before the press-secretary of “Breshna” company Hamidullo Tawhid told the Tajik office of Radio Liberty that the problem of power supply to the Afghan capital is solved partially, as 100 megawatts of electricity are supplied to Kabul from Tajikistan. According to him, the Afghan side addressed to the leadership of Tajikistan with the written request to increase the supply of electricity to the country up to 150-180MW.
    The Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of the Republic of Tajikistan informs they have not received such a request from the Afghan side yet. They also added such requests should come to them through the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
“Barki Tojik” informs in autumn-winter period the volume of the Tajik electricity delivered to Afghanistan is not that large, as Tajikistan’s domestic demand for electricity within this period grows as well, thus, the energy bridge for Afghanistan operates at half of its ability mainly “to preserve the power lines operation”.
According to “Barki Tojik”, about 1.2 billion KW/h of electricity were exported to Afghanistan in 2015.