Energy sector: Tajik envoy calls for cooperation

Pakistan can get up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity through a project.

KARACHI: Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan Zubaydullo N Zubaydov has said that Pakistan can overcome its power shortage by getting up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity through the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Trade and Transmission Project (CASA 1000), a statement said on Friday.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark Tajikistan’s national day at a local hotel, the Tajik envoy said that CASA 1000 would transmit 1,000MW surplus electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan through Afghanistan. He said the total length of the transmission line would be 750 kilometres.

Expressing his satisfaction over the outcome of the recent visit of a 108-member trade delegation led by TDAP Chief Executive Tariq Puri from Pakistan to Dushanbe, he said that establishing road and air links between the two countries would boost bilateral trade between the two countries.

Speaking on the occasion, Puri said that he hoped the delegation’s visit to Tajikistan would pave the way for the establishment of a road link between Pakistan and Tajikistan via Afghanistan.

Tajikistan’s honorary consul general in Karachi, Irshad A Kassim, and the vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries, Usman Shaikh, also spoke on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2011.