DUSHANBE, May 27, 2013, Asia-Plus – Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports that according to the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe, the debt of Barqi Tojik (Tajik state electricity supplier) to the Sangtuda-2 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) is rising monthly by 2 million U.S. dollars.
Barqi Tojik now owes 20 million U.S. dollars to the Sangtuda-2 HPP, a source at the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe was quoted as saying by Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service.
As it had been reported earlier, the second unit of the Sangtuda-2 HPP on the Vakhsh River in Tajikistan will be introduced into operation next month, after the Iranian presidential election.
Iranian president is expected to arrive in Tajikistan to join his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon in a joint ceremony to introduce the second unit of the Sangtuda-2 HPP into operation.
The presidential election in Iran is scheduled to be held on June 14, 2013. If no presidential candidate polls 50 percent of the vote on the first round, a runoff will be held on 21 June. It will elect the seventh President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
We will recall that the first unit of the plant was introduced into operation on September 5, 2011. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended a joint ceremony to unveil the Sangtuda-2 dam and power plant.
Construction of Sangtuda-2, a 220-megawatt plant on the Vakhsh River, officially commenced in February 2006. It is located some 120 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe.
Iran, which has put some 180 million U.S. dollars into the construction of the hydropower station, will operate it for the next 12 years and then transfer control to Tajikistan, whose contribution to the construction costs amounted to around 40 million U.S. dollars.
The power plant is expected to help alleviate power shortages in Tajikistan during autumn-winter period.
