Jun 8, 2008 - BBC Monitoring Central Asia

Tajikistan has begun supplying electricity to neighbouring Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. This was announced today by the Barki Tojik state energy holding company which said exports had become possible after a sharp increase in output in the country's hydropower stations, chiefly at its largest one, Nurek.

The head of the energy holding company's press office, Nazir Yodgori, said June's high temperature (reaching 37 degrees Celsius) had led to a massive thaw in glaciers in the Pamir mountains, resulting in reservoirs filling up fast. Tajikistan has completely lifted restrictions on power supply after its use had been limited to four hours a day for more than seven months.

At the moment, the energy holding company (monopoly) supplies Uzbekistan with up to 6m kWh of power a day and plans to pay off its debts to Uzbek suppliers over the summer months.

[Passage omitted: Uzbekistan provided electricity to Tajikistan while it experienced energy crisis last winter; Tajik officials believe that they will be able to avoid crisis this year by putting more power-generating facilities into operation]

Originally published by ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0505 08 Jun 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Central Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

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