DUSHANBE, March 7, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Pakistan and Afghanistan are interested in purchasing cheap electrical power from Tajikistan, and therefore, they supported implementation of the Central Asia-South Asia 1000 (CASA-1000) project, Homidjon Arifov, secretary of Tajikistan’s national committee at the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), said in an interview with Asia-Plus Monday afternoon.

We will recall that CASA-1000 is a regional project providing for construction of high voltage electricity transmission lines for electricity exports from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan.  Since 2005, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been cooperating with each other and international financial institutions (the Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corporation, Islamic Development Bank and World Bank) within the Central Asia-South Asia Regional Electricity Market (CASAREM) Project.

According to Arifov, the CASA-1000 project would be senseless without construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP) in Tajikistan and Kambar-Ata HPP in Kyrgyzstan.  “Following from this it is safe to say that Kabul and Islamabad may become allies of Dushanbe on implementation of the Roghun hydroelectricity project,” the expert noted.

He reminded that Pakistan expressed wish to participate in the Roghun project in 1992, promising to allocate 500 million U.S. dollars for those purposes.  “This amount would be quite enough that time for completion of the construction of the Roghun HPP, but Russia impeded Islamabad’s plans that time, making pressure on Tajikistan,” said Arifov, “To add to this, a civil war broke out in Tajikistan.”

He added that it could not be ruled out that Dushanbe and Islamabad would find points of contact on resumption of cooperation in completing the Roghun HPP during the ongoing state visit of President Emomali Rahmon to Pakistan.

Construction of the Roghun dam began in the 1980s.  However, the project stalled after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  In recent years, the Tajik Government restarted the construction process.  The installed capacity is proposed to be 6x600 MW (totaling 3,600 MW) and the annual power generation would be 13,300 GWh.  Despite significant storage, Roghun HPP is expected to produce electricity in Tajikistan and develop irrigation in the region.  Currently most of the site preparation works about 70% of the underground works (access tunnels, penstocks, diversion and outlet tunnels, chambers for turbines/generators and transformers) have been completed.  If completed, this dam would likely be the highest in the world and generate power not only for Tajikistan but enough to export to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

These plans have raised serious concerns in Uzbekistan.  Uzbek officials argue that because it could take up to 18 years to fill, the Roghun project will severely reduce the amount of water flowing into Uzbekistan.