DUSHANBE, April 27, 2009, Asia-Plus — Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) power holding has settled the issue of its debt to open joint stock company (OJSC) Sangtuda HPP-1 that has built the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) in Tajikistan.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Sechin, who heads the board of directors of Inter RAO YeES (Unified Energy Systems), remarked this during his visit to Tajikistan last week, some Russian media reported.
Tajik electricity supplier’s debt to Sangtuda HPP-1 amounts to more than 10 million US dollars and consent to pay off the debt will allow introducing the last fourth unit of the station into operation in mid-May,
Kommersant
reported.
According to
Kommersant
, Tajik Deputy Prime Minister, Asadullo Ghulomov, stated last Friday that the debt problem is not on the agenda anymore. Ghulomov noted that the Sangtuda-1 station was expected to be officially opened on May 15.
The source at Inter RAO YeES noted that the Tajik side had submitted the schedule of repaying the debt and expressed hope that Barqi Tojik would adhere to it, Kommersant said.
We will recall that the first unit of the Russian-built Sangtuda-1 station was introduced into operation on January 20, 2008. The second and the third units of the plant were also introduced into operation last year — on July 1 and November 6 respectively.
The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s. The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.
Russia retains a 75 percent share in the power plant, which will generate a projected 2.7 billion kWh of electricity per annum. The power station will have an estimated capacity of 670 MW.
