KANDAHAR CITY: Officials and residents of southern Kandahar province say power supply should not be cut during installation of a new turbine at the Kajaki dam in neighbouring Helmand.
Da Afghanistan Breshna Shirkat (DABS) officials recently said electricity supply to Kandahar province would be snapped for two months until a second turbine was installed at the Kajaki dam.
DABS Commerce DirectorEng. Abdul Wakil Naseri said work on the installation of the second turbine had been accelerated and would take up to 45 days to complete.
Kajaki dam currently provides 12 megawatts of electricity to Kandahar. The installation of the second turbine will increase the supply to 20 megawatts, the official added.
Naseri also referred to plans to provide solar energy to Kandahar, saying the procurement process had been completed. The project would take one year to complete.
Ninety percent of work on installation of power pylons from Kabul to southern Ghazni province has also been done and extension of power cables was 40 percent complete, Naseri said.
He acknowledged Kandahar would also gain access to electricity through Ghazni province in the second phase of power extension.
GovernorHamayun Aziz told DABS not to cut power supply to the province as residents would face problems.He asked the power utility to find an alternative source of power supply.
He regretted the solar power project had long been delayed and the relevant quarters should pay attention to the issue.
Energy DirectorEng. Syed Rassoulsaid the extension of power lines for the solar system had already been completed but the authorities concernedwere yet to start work on constructing the power station.
The solar power project was expected to be completed in July 2016 by the USAID at a cost of $15 million, but practical work on the scheme is yet to be initiated.
Residents of Kandahar, meanwhile, expressed concerns over the delay in the project and asked the central government to launch and execute it as soon as possible.
They urged the government not to disconnect power supply to the province during the installation of the second turbine at Kajaki dam.
Resident Qudratullahsaid the president, during his trip to Kandahar,had promised completing the solar power project, which would produce 10 megawatts of electricity.
The date given by Ashraf Ghani for project implementation was fast approaching but work on the scheme was yet to begin, remarked the inhabitant.
There are around 200 factories in Kandahar, where 5,000 people are working. But most of them are either shut or half-active due to the shortage of electricity.
