Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), the country’s power distributor, said Chinese investors have expressed willingness to invest in coal-fired power in Afghanistan.

According to a statement by the DABS, the investment will produce 500 megawatts of electricity. 

“The technical delegations of DABS and China through joint meetings will discuss all issues on how to produce electricity from coal and the result of the meetings will be shared with the leaders of the Islamic Emirate,” the statement said. 

This comes as industrial parks, private companies and factories have repeatedly voiced their concerns over the shortage of power. 

“There is a significanr reduction in our productions due to shortage of power. There are a lot of power cuts for the residential houses,” said Abdul Nasir Rishtia, chairman of of iron smelting union.

The shortage of power has also irked Kabul residents who say they are provided only four hours of electricity a day.

“The problems of shortage of power is huge. The people don’t have anything to heat their homes and while there is no power, we are more in trouble. We cannot even use our phones,” said Nawid, a resident of Kabul.

Based on statistics of DABS, Afghanistan needs 1,600 megawatts of electricity with 30 percent of it provided from internal sources and the rest from imported power from neighboring countries, including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Iran. 

This comes as acting Minister of Energy and Water, Abdul Latif Mansour left Kabul for Uzbekistan this week to sign an agreement of $35 million.