Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Kandahar Solar Power Plant Ready to Produce 15MW Electricity

Kandahar Solar Power Plant  Ready to Produce 15MW Electricity

KANDAHAR CITY - The much-delayed Kandahar solar power project is set to produce 15 Megawatts electricity after several public complaints regarding the slow-paced work on the project.
The total capacity of the project is 40 Megawatts, but the project could not be accomplished in time despite the demands of local residents and assurances by authorities.
Work on two solar power plants in Kandahar is underway with slow-paced at the time when local residents suffered huge problems due to shortage of electricity.
The weather in Kandahar is intensely warm and its people are spending the ongoing holy month of Ramadan without any cooling tools which require electricity to fun
Faizulhaq Mushkani, deputy head of Kandahar Industrialists Association, told Pajhwok Afghan News that shortage of electricity in the province had created problems for all the people there, particularly factories owners.
He said that 135 out of 289 factories in the province have been shut over the last few years due to lack of electricity.
Many other investors are waiting for the solar power to be made available so they run their own factories, he added.
He said Kandahar factories were producing cotton, ghee, soap, ice, ice-cream, package materials, plastic dishes, pipes, edible items, non-alcoholic drinks, oil cake and others and 5,000 people were busy working there.
However, he said most of these factories closed were semi-functional due to lack of electricity.
Mohammad Ajmal, a resident of Kandahar city, told Pajhwok that their livelihood was affected due to shortage of electricity over the last several years.
He asked the government to press companies responsible for the implementation of the solar power project to accelerate their work.
Ajmal said that the electricity from Helmand province’s Kajaki Dam was not reliable as its cables connecting Kandahar province were most of the times cut during clashes and windstorms.
He believed that officials of the solar power plant and solar and battery companies were shared with each other. “Whenever the weather gets hot, our electricity shuts down in order the companies sell their own products on people,” he said.
Head of Afghanistan Entrepreneurs Board, Rahimuddin Haji Agha also said that 15MW of electricity could not resolve shortage of power in Kandahar.
He said dozens of factories in the province stopped functioning due to shortage of electricity there.
Many of these factories are functioning based on shifts due to shortage of electricity which is a challenge for the industry, he said.
He said Kandahar city alone required more than 50MW electricity according to its population.
Kandahar Breshna Sherkat director, Amanullah Faroqi said that implementation of the 15MW electricity power plant was going to complete in the next few days.
However, he said that implementation of a 15MW solar power project awarded to an Indian company and a 10MW project contracted to an Afghan company was going slow.
He added that the two companies were pressed to accelerate implementation of the projects.
Kandahar city currently receive 20MW electricity from Kajaki Dam of Helmand province which is said to be unreliable due to clashes and windstorms. (Pajhwok)