Industrialists want imported power supply to Kandahar resumed

KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): Officials of the Chamber of Mines and Industries in southern Kandahar province on Wednesday said the supply of imported power to the province should be resumed to solve the electricity crisis.

They made the remarks during a meeting with Mullah Mohammad Issa Akhund, CEO of Da Afghanistan Breshna Shirkat, during his visit to Kandahar.

Syed Sarwar Amani, director of the Kandahar Chamber of Mines and Industries, told the meeting that the electricity available in Kandahar was insufficient for residents of Kandahar and the industrial park. He said the electricity from Kajaki hydro power dam was often cut off and reconnected, causing damage to machines in factories.

He added that many factories in Kandahar had either been shut down due to power shortages or had been relocated to Herat and Kabul.

"Kandahar's electricity needs to be restored fundamentally," he said. The transfer of imported electricity to Kandahar, much of which has already been completed, needs to be restarted. ”

The industrialists also said that every time electricity from Kajaki dam was cut off and connected and it caused damage to machines in the factories. This is because the electricity has passed through Kandahar city and then to the industrial park.

They demanded that a special line from the Kajaki power plant be extended to the Kandahar Industrial Park to prevent damage to factory machinery.

Ahmadullah Azizi, executive director of the Kandahar Chamber of Mines and Industries, also said that industrialists should be provided with facilities in other sectors besides electricity so that more investment could be made here.

Mullah Mohammad Issa Akhund, Director General of Breshna Shirkat, said in his speech that the work of upgrading the power line from Kajaki Dam in Helmand to Kandahar City is in full swing and will be completed soon.

He said the project would cost 300 million afghanis, which would be paid by the power company.

He said that the work of this new line up to Maiwand district of Kandahar has been completed and the rest of the work is in full swing and it will be completed in the next few days.

On the issue of imported electricity, he said the move would require a large budget and in this regard he had made recommendations to senior officials. "We are working on a permanent solution," he said.

He also demanded that the industrialists should pay their electricity bills on time and they were also committed to give priority to industrialists in the distribution of electricity.

For the past two weeks, power has been cut off from the Kajaki Dam to Kandahar due to the extension of new transmission lines.

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