This was disclosed by Saleem H Mandviwala, minister of state, who is also chairman of the Board of Investment, during his visit to the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) on Friday.

He said Uzbekistan, which had 50,000 megawatts surplus electricity, was providing electricity to Afghanistan for which a transmission line had been laid up to Kabul. Saleem Mandviwala said the Central Asian republic had also expressed willingness to provide electricity to Pakistan.

He said the Asian Development Bank had expressed interest in laying the transmission line from Kabul to Peshawar for which it would recover its capital through a mechanism of tariffs at the later stage.

To a question, he said the electricity produced in Uzbekistan was cheaper than the power generated in Pakistan and the Central Asian state was ready to provide its surplus power to Pakistan for about 2.3 cent per unit.