Tajik authorities have promised to increase electricity supplies to residential customers in the regions, who have experienced power rationing since later September last year, to 8 house per day during the holy month of Ramadan: four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening.

Director-General of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Shabakahoi Taqsimoti Barq (Electricity Distribution Networks), Mr. Arvind Gujral, has sent an urgent telegram on this subject to head of the company’s subsidiaries in the region.    

The telegram, in particular, says that on the occasion of the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan on March 11, electricity will be supplied to residential customers eight hours per day: from 4:00 am to 8:00 am in the morning and from 5:00 pm t0 9:00 pm in the evening.   

Mr. Gujral has demanded that his subordinates strictly adhere to the electricity supply schedule.  

It is to be noted that rural areas of the country accept lengthy power outages as a routine.

Measures rationing electricity supplies are usually introduced in all regions except Dushanbe, the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) and regional administrative centers and they seek to curb the country's rising electricity consumption.  The rationing results in the supply of daily electrical power being reduced to 8 or 10 hours.  In addition to curbing rising consumption, the move also stems from a decline in the water level in the country's reservoirs powering the main hydroelectric power plants.

This time, residential customers in rural areas of the country have endured blackouts from 8 am to 5 pm and then from 10 pm to 5 am since September 26, 2023.