DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Natural resource ministers from four Central Asian countries signed a trade deal bringing electricity from Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan via Kabul, officials said.
Ministers from Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan signed an agreement to trade at least 1,000 megawatts of hydroelectric power, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.
The agreement to deliver electricity through Afghanistan and onto Pakistan was signed at the conclusion Monday of a regional electricity conference in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
Pakistani Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said the agreement concerns principal arrangements only and any details concerning costs and other matters would be finalized at a later time.
The electricity will travel along transmission lines from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Kabul and then on to Pakistan. Afghanistan will consume 800 megawatts of the energy.
The project is expected to commence by 2013.
