DUSHANBE, July 15, 2009, Asia-Plus — On July 14, President Emomali Rahmon, who is currently in Egypt to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, President Dmitry Medvedev, to discuss issues related to bilateral economic cooperation between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation, according to presidential press service.
An official opening of the Russian built hydroelectric power plant (HPP) Sangtuda-1 was among major topics of the conversation. The official opening of the station is scheduled for the end of this month and Rahmon and Medvedev are expected to attend the ceremony.
We will recall that the last fourth unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP was introduced into operation on May 15 this year. However, this does not mean the full completion of construction of the station. The full completion of this turnkey project also includes creation of necessary infrastructure – improvement of the territory, reservoir and town for power engineering specialists. The station is expected to begin working in full capacity starting from August this year, when water levels at the reservoir powering the Sangtuda-1 stations will reach the rated level.
The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 120 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 has an estimated capacity of 670 MW.
