KABUL (SW): A number of demonstrators took to the streets in Kabul on Tuesday to record their protest against the alleged change of route for the 500 kV power transmission project Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TUTAP).
The protestors urged the government to make sure this transmission line passes through central Bamiyan and Maidank Wardak provinces instead of diverting it to the mountainous Salang Pass route.
They participants asserted that despite years of efforts by the residents in central provinces, the government keeps ignoring them and has now decided to change the route of this transmission line as well.
Angry at the governments’ decision, the protestors said that this transmission line should pass through Bamiyan and Maidan Wardak provinces. They asserted that De Afghanistan Breshna Shirkat (DABS) as well as the government have deliberately changed the initial route of this line and have chosen Salang Pass instead.
They gave a two-day ultimatum to the government to choose Bamiyan and Maidan Wardak, which was decided in the initial master plan, as the route for the transmission line.
Ahmad Behzad, a member of the Wolesi Jirga (lower house), who was present at the demonstration, said that the government should no longer resist national interests.
Meanwhile, Ali Ahmad Osmani, Spokesman for Ministry of Water and Energy, told journalists on Tuesday that the government would reconsider the transmission line issue.
ENDS
