On Friday January 26, OJSHC Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national integrated power company) and Japan’s Nishizawa Company signed a contract worth 1.976 billion Japanese Yen (equivalent to around 17.5 million US dollars).

The contract will be implemented in the framework of the grant project, Improvement of Substations in Dushanbe, funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

According to Mr. Hideki Tanabe, JICA Chief Representative for Tajikistan, within the next two years Nishizawa Company will construct a brand new “Radiostansiya” substation in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district and rehabilitate “Promishlennaya” substation located in Dushanbe’s Sino district.

It should be noted that main power equipment (transformers, circuit breakers etc.) for both substations will be manufactured by internationally known Japanese company TOSHIBA.

It is anticipated that completion of the construction and rehabilitation works would significantly contribute to provision of reliable and efficient power supply to residential customers, industrial sector and social facilities of Dushanbe.  Also, the amount of power supply failures which were happening due to overloading of the existing transformers in Sino and Ismoili Somoni districts would be reduced.

JICA began its technical cooperation with Tajikistan in 1993 by inviting Tajik officials to gain knowledge and experience on governance and macroeconomics development.  As of January 2018, a total number of participants to JICA’s Knowledge Co-Creation Programs, formerly called the Training Programs, has exceeded 2100 people.  JICA Office was established in 2006 in Tajikistan and since then various Grant Financial Assistance and Technical Cooperation projects have been implemented more dynamically, aiming at improving living standard of Tajik people for the sectors such as agriculture and rural development, water supply, health, transport, energy, capacity building etc. JICA’s cumulative investment portfolio in Tajikistan in all sectors comprises 33 projects amounting to more than 341 million USD (82 million USD for Technical Cooperation and 259 million USD for Grant Assistance), including 12 on-going projects.