KABUL - For the first time, Mazar-e-Sharif power and fertilizer plant will be provided with gas from the northern city of Shiberghan through a new gas pipeline, officials said on Saturday. Officials in Afghan Ministry of Mines said the construction gas pipeline will cost $53 million and this is the first biggest investment in gas delivery in Mazar-e-Sharif power and fertilizer plant.

The other phases of the gas pipeline project, including budget allocation and work plan have been completed and work on the project will be kicked off in a matter of a couple of days, officials said. The project will not only help increase the production of fertilizer in the plant, which provides electricity to Mazar-e-Sharif, but it will ensure gas delivery to the plant for years.

Meanwhile, work on the gas wells in Shiberghan is also in progress and three gas wells have been prepared for extraction, officials said. "We will start work on gas pipeline next week," Mines Minister Waheedullah Shahrani said.

Some 37 years back Mazar-e-Sharif power and fertilizer plant started to operate and it used to produce 400 ton of fertiliser and six mega watt of electricity then on daily basis. (Tolo News)