Paktika residents want imported power project completed

SHARANA (Pajhwok): Residents and businessmen in southeastern Paktika province have urged the government to complete the extension of imported electricity to the province.

Paktika Chamber of Commerce president Silab Sahil told Pajhwok that people and businessmen face many problems due to lack of electricity.

He said private power generating companies sold electricity at high rate and the lack of government-supplied electricity had prevented businessmen from investing in the province.

Sahil said: “There were six factories in Paktika a few years ago, but now three of them have been closed due to lack of electricity. Private electricity is expensive.”

He asked the government to complete the remaining works of the extension of imported electricity to Paktika.

Nasibullah, a resident of Sharana, said in today’s life electricity was an important necessity and they were deprived of it.

He said work on extending the imported electricity to Paktika was started in the previous government, but it was stopped after the political change in the country.

He asked Da Afghanistan Barishna Shirkat to pay attention to the problems of Paktika people and businessmen and solve the electricity problem as soon as possible.

Mateen, a shopkeeper in Sharana city, also complained about lack of electricity and said private companies provided electricity to the city at a high rate.

“There is no government-provided electricity in this province. One kilowatt of privately produced electricity is 60 afghanis.”

Mateen said his shop’s refrigerator had no regular electricity and thus many perishable items spoiled.

He asked the government to pay serious attention to the extension of imported electricity to the province.

Paktika electricity officials accept people’s complaints but say they lack enough budget to complete the imported electricity extension project.

Abdul Rahman Hashemi, the electricity department head, said that 22 percent of the imported electricity extension project had been completed, but work on the project had been stopped due to lack of budget.

He added: “The work on the Asian Development Bank-funded project to connect imported electricity to Paktika was stopped after the regime change in 2021.”

He said they were trying to activate diesel power system in Sharana city until the imported electricity was connected to the province.

He said the diesel electricity project was started with financial support of the Ministry of Interior and it was estimated to cost six million afghanis and it would provide 400 kilowatts of electricity.

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