Turkmenistan to export electricity to Pakistan

Aug 24, 2010 - BBC Monitoring - Energy Central

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has ordered the government to work out a project on exporting electricity to Pakistan via Afghanistan.

The construction of a 500-KV power line linking the major power station Mary with the Afghan border will kick off the implementation of this major regional project, a session has said.

The government's session, at which the country's leader put forward this initiative, discussed also projects to increase power supplies to Iran. With the purpose of this, it is planned to build two 400-KV major power transmission lines from Mary and Balkanabad hydroelectric power stations. The latter is located in the country's south and will be a central point of the new 500-KV Asgabat-Turkmenbasy power line planned to be built in the country.

The session also discussed the resumption of exports of Turkmen electricity to Kazakhstan, which was suspended in the middle of 1990s.

[Passage omitted: Turkmenistan exports electricity to Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Tajikistan]

Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0428 gmt 10 Aug 10