DUSHANBE, February 3, 2010, Asia-Plus — Uzbek official paper Pravda Vostoka reported today that Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev has sent a letter to Tajik Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov, in which he points out the necessity of carrying out independent examination of construction of the Roghun HPP.
The letter, in particular, says that Uzbek authorities have repeatedly applied to the Government of Tajikistan, Russia, and international organizations, requesting for carrying out independent assessment studies for the construction of the Roghun HPP because the Roghun hydroelectricity project had been worked out 40 years ago already on the basis of out-of-date technological decisions.
According to Uzbek premier, international organizations and international financial institutions such as the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank as well as the Russian Federation and other countries have allegedly supported Uzbekistan’s position on this subject.
The Uzbek official also notes in his letter that a number of Russian companies have been involved in construction of the Roghun HPP on contractual basis and they probably don’t care about possible negative effects of this project.
Mirziyoyev also stresses that the site for the Roghun HPP is situated in the high-seismic zone.
At the end of his letter, the Uzbek premier expressed hope that “reasonable approaches to solution of this issues, which is of significant importance for stable development of the region, will prevail.”
In the meantime, Tajikistan is continuing to construct the Roghun HPP on its own.
In 2009, the government allocated 533 million somoni for the Roghun hydroelectricity project and the country’s for 2010 earmarks 650 million somoni for the Roghun HPP. Under the country’s medium-term development program, 5.3 billion somoni will be allocated for the Roghun project in 2011-2013.
Besides, Some 671 million somoni worth of shares in open join-stock company NBO Roghun have been sold in the country by February 1, 2010, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said. The government started to sell shares in Roghun to people to raise funds to complete construction of the Roghun HPP on January 6 this year.
We will recall that Tajikistan in August 2007 formally revoked a contract with Russia”s RusAl aluminum company for the construction of the Roghun HPP. The Tajik government accused the 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. In April 2008, Tajikistan founded open joint-stock company, NBO Roghun, with an authorized capital of 116 million somoni for completing the construction of the Roghun station.
The 3,600 MWt Roghun hydroelectric power plant is to generate 13 billion kWh of electricity per year. The plant”s completion would substantially increase sales of electricity to neighboring Afghanistan, China, and Pakistan.
