Officials from the Ministry of Energy and Water said a private company has agreed to invest $60 million USD in the first phase of a power project which will use natural gas to generate electricity near Sheberghan, the capital of Jawzjan province.

Technical deputy chief of the ministry, Amanullah Ghalib, said 52 megawatts of power will be generated by the project in the first phase and will be distributed to local residents.

“The project will generate a total of 250 megawatts of electricity in three phases. In the first phase, it will generate 52 megawatts. Work on the project will start within one month. $60 million USD will be invested in the first phase,” Ghalib told TOLOnews on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, officials from Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), the country’s power company, said work has already started on establishing pylons and electricity lines in Sheberghan city and that the gas-generated power will be distributed to residents on the outskirts of the city.

“We have all preparations in place. We will send the power to the network once it is generated and then we will distribute it to our customers,” said Qudratullah Dilawari, head of DABS.

Afghanistan reportedly has the capacity to generate 300,000 megawatts of power from different sources. However, 80 percent of the country’s electricity is imported from abroad.