Taliban announced Friday that their representatives from Afghanistan’s state-run electricity utility, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, signed agreements with ministers from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan aimed at accelerating the completion of the long-delayed CASA-1000 regional power project.
The agreements, signed during a summit in Tajikistan, are intended to expedite the remaining construction phases of CASA-1000, an ambitious cross-border energy initiative designed to transmit surplus hydropower from Central Asia to South Asia via Afghanistan.
In a statement, Taliban said the deals were part of a broader effort to strengthen regional cooperation on energy and ensure faster delivery of electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan through Afghanistan.
CASA-1000, launched in May 2016 with an estimated value of $1.2 billion, aims to transmit 1,300 megawatts of excess hydroelectric power from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to energy-deficient markets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The project includes 484 kilometers of alternating current (AC) transmission lines from Datka in Kyrgyzstan to Sughd in Tajikistan, and another 789 kilometers of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) lines from Sangtuda, Tajikistan, through Afghanistan to Nowshera, Pakistan, with converter stations at both ends.
Prior to the suspension of the project in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, roughly 18 percent of the necessary transmission towers had been erected within Afghanistan, and 95 percent of the required equipment had been procured.
The World Bank, which had been a major financier of the initiative, halted funding after the Taliban takeover. In February 2024, however, the Bank announced plans to resume support for the Afghan segment of the project, with the caveat that all payments and financial management would be handled externally, beyond the control of the Taliban government. This structure was designed to ensure the project’s continuation while minimizing political risk.
