ROGHUN, December 25, 2009, Asia-Plus — Nobody currently knows an exact date for damming the Vakhsh River at the site for construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP), Nourullo Shulashov, the director general of open joint stock-company (OJSC) NBO Roghun, told journalists today.
According to him, some 700 million somoni (equivalent to some US$160 million) has been spent for construction of the Roghun HPP since 2008.
“At present, 56 contracting organizations and more than 7,000 workers are working at the Roghun site and more than 60 percent of the overall volume of work on construction of the station has been carried out to this day,” Shulashov said.
As it had been reported earlier, 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 with an authorized capital of 116 million somoni for completing the construction of the Roghun station. Tajik authorities also plan to create an international consortium to complete the construction of the Roghun power 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.
