Turkmen electricity - life-giving force for the economy of the Afghan province of Badghis
The commissioning of a new transmission line connecting the power grids of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, providing an additional route for the supply of Turkmen electricity to this country became significant event of this week. 112-km long 110-kV transmission line Rabatkashan-Qala-e-Naw with a capacity of 100 megawatt-hour stretches from Turkmenistan’s Tahtabazar district to the northwestern Afghan province of Badghis. According to minimal estimates, thanks to new transmission lines access to uninterrupted supply of Turkmen electricity will be granted to 7,000 families in Qala-e-Naw, the administrative center of the province. In nearest future, another 10,000 families in Qades, Muqur and Ab Kamari districts will be connected to distribution networks from the line of Rabatkashan - Qala-e-Naw. In addition to the expansion of energy supply, the immediate economic and social benefit of this power transmission line is that energy tariffs in the province of Badghis, previously supplied with generators, will be reduced from 40 to 6 Afghanis per kilowatt. It is no exaggeration to say that for underdeveloped Badghis, the majority of whose population was experiencing energy shortages, the megawatts of Turkmen electricity give hope for future prosperity. The logic here is simple – eventually, the electricity exported from Turkmenistan will enable the stable functioning of the social infrastructure, work of small and medium-sized businesses, the living conditions of the population will improve, and new jobs will be created, a number of development tasks will be solved for the agriculture and industry. In turn, economic wellbeing and progress are the strongest foundations of the peace and tranquility sorely needed by the Afghan people.
