Tajik Leader Rules Out Winter Power Rationing in Capital – Mayor

Excerpt from report by privately-owned Tajik news agency Asia- Plus website

Dushanbe, 19 September: No limit on the supply of electricity will be introduced in Dushanbe in this autumn and the winter of 2009, the mayor of the city, Mahmadsaid Ubaydulloyev, said at a meeting today. He added that Tajik President Emomali Rahmon had adopted a decision to this effect. “The president gave this order to the country’s relevant agencies at the beginning of this week,” the mayor said.

According to Mahmadsaid Ubaydulloyev, the level of water at the Norak reservoir is now 7.5 m lower than its maximum. “If the reservoir does not fill, the energy industry of the country may not get about 900m kWh of electricity,” the mayor said.

[Passage omitted: participants in the meeting made proposals on reducing energy consumption in Dushanbe]

Originally published by Asia-Plus news agency website, Dushanbe, in Russian 19 Sep 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Central Asia. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.