DUSHANBE, July 26, 2015, Asia-Plus — In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, First Deputy Minister of Finance, Jamshed Karimzoda, revealed on July 24 that about 585 million somoni have been spent over the first six months of this year for construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP), which is 84 percent of the amount earmarked by the national budget for construction of the Roghun HPP in January-June this year.
According to him, the national budget projected 650 million somoni for construction of the Roghun HPP in the first half of this year.
In all, more than 1.6 billion somoni are planned to be spent this year for construction of the Roghun HPP, Karimzoda noted.
“More than 6.435 billion somoni have been spent for construction of the Roghun HPP since 2008, when the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) NBO Roghun was founded,” Tajik official said.
He further added that the sale of Roghun shares had earned the government about 860 million somoni.
We will recall that Tajikistan in April 2008 founded OJSC NBO Roghun with an authorized capital of 116 million somoni for completing the construction of the Roghun station after it formally revoked a contract with Russia”s RusAl aluminum company for the construction of the Roghun HPP in August 2007. The Tajik government accused the Russian company of failing to fulfill the contract signed in 2004. Tajik authorities and RusAl became bogged down in the hydroelectric plant”s dam model and height, crucial factors in its capacity.
To raise funds to complete construction of the Roghun HPP the government started to sell shares in Roghun to people on January 6, 2010. Tajikistan has reportedly issued 6 billion somoni worth of Roghun shares.
In response to a request by the Government of Tajikistan, the World Bank supported two studies to evaluate the viability of the proposed Roghun Hydropower Project according to international standards: Techno-Economic Assessment Study (TEAS); and Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA).
The assessment studies have been finalized after the fifth round of riparian consultations was completed in September last year last and comments from government and civil society stakeholders were carefully considered.
The World Bank and the Government of Tajikistan reached an understanding in 2010 that no new construction would commence until after the assessment studies have been prepared, reviewed by the Panels of Experts, then shared and discussed with riparian nations. It was also agreed that there would be no further resettlement of residents from the proposed reservoir area until there is a resettlement framework plan in place to provide proper compensation or alternative housing.
The Roghun HPP is expected to have a reservoir with multi-year regulation mode with a dam height of 335 m, located on the Vakhsh River upstream of the existing Nurek HPP cascade. The installed capacity is proposed to be 6×600 MW (totaling 3,600 MW) and the annual power generation would be 13,300 GWh.
Tajikistan’s plans to build the Roghun HPP have raised serious concerns across the border in Uzbekistan. Uzbek officials argue that because it could take up to 18 years to fill, the Roghun project will severely reduce the amount of water flowing into Uzbekistan.
