DUSHANBE, January 25, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan will start the construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power station (HPS) on its own, Minister of Energy and Industry Sherali Gulov announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 24.
According to him, the government intends to start the construction of the plant with use of national funds but not without participation of foreign or local investors. “As far as Russkii Aluminii (Russian Aluminum or RusAl) is concerned, with whom Tajikistan had concluded an agreement on the completion of the construction of the Roghun station, President Rahmonov stated that Tajikistan may complete the Roghun power plant without assistance of this company,” the minister said.
According to Gulov, over the past three years, RusAl has not fulfilled any of its obligations on the agreement that was signed in Dushanbe in October 2004.
“Under the agreement, Russian Aluminum has pledged itself to invest in the construction of two electrolysis workshops with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons at the Tajik Aluminum Plant (TadAZ). Besides, they were scheduled to assist in training of personnel,” said the minister, “RusAl has not fulfilled its obligations and invested nothing in the modernization of the TadAZ.”
According to the minister, Tajikistan’s State Committee for Management of State-owned Property evaluated all facilities of the Roghun station that were in the Soviet era already and were considered as ownership share of Tajikistan in the station and handed over all these documents to RusAl, which hired Germany”s Lehmeyer International to review the documents and conduct a feasibility study for completing the construction of the Roghun hydropower plant. “As a result they evaluated all the facilities built in the Soviet era cheaply and figures given by Tajik specialists were lowered,” said the minister, “The feasibility study was submitted for reviewing to specialists from the World Bank and the last assessed work of both RusAl and the consulting engineering company Lehmeyer negatively, finding their figures given too low.”
Meanwhile, Gulov hailed work of Russia’s Unified Energy Systems (RAO YeES Rossiii) on the construction of the Sangtuda-1 power plant in Tajikistan. “RAO YeES is fulfilling all its obligations on the project,” Gulov said, noting that the first generator of the Sangutuda-1 station may possibly put into operation already in December this year.
We will recall that under the agreement signed in Dushanbe in October 2004, RusAl plans to invest in the construction of two electrolysis workshops with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons at the Tajik Aluminum Plant. It also plans to build a new aluminum smelter in the south of Tajikistan with an annual capacity of 200,000 tons. The company will invest in completing the construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power station on the River Vakhsh, which will supply the new plants with electricity, part of which will be exported outside Tajikistan.
