DUSHANBE, April 26, Asia-Plus – Russia’s Unified Energy Systems (RAO YeES) will probably undertake construction of the Roghun power plant, but only after completion of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectricity project, Sharifkhon Samiyev, the head of Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) power holding, remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on April 26.
According to him, they have not yet received any concrete proposals from the Russian side on this subject. “RusAl has had no operations in Roghun since the beginning of the year, when the government decided to complete the construct the plant without RusAl,” said Samiyev, “However, an agreement signed with RusAl in October 2004 has not yet been annulled.”
“Besides, Tajikistan has allocated $50 million this year for constructing the Roghun plant and we are currently also considering the issue of establishing a consortium for completing the construction of the station.” The Barqi Tojik head stressed that the Roghun station will be property of Tajikistan.
“Over the past two years, RusAl has invested in the Roghun project $247,000 but not $50 million as it claims,” Samiyev said.
We will recall that Andrey Rapoport, a board member of RAO YeES, told journalists in Dushanbe on April 20 that Tajikistan plans to hold a tender for completing the construction of the Roghun station. He noted that RAO YeES should participate in that tender.
In the meantime, according to information posted on the Russian website Kommersant.ru, Aleksandr Bulygin, director general of Russian Aluminum (RusAl), stated that their company has always fulfilled its obligations on the agreement singed in October 2004. According to him, they do have information about any changes made to the agreement by the Russian side. “RAO YeES asks to provide $1.2 billion from the budget for this project, while we are ready to construct the Roghun station without attracting state funds,” Bulygin said.
