On Thursday February 20, Tajik Prime Minister Qohir Rasoulzoda received Mr. Pietro Salini, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Salini Impregilo S.p.A., which is building the dam of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP), according to Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
In the course of the talks, the two sides reportedly discussed the process of construction of the Roghun dam.
They, in particular, discussed the quality of construction work issues related to timely implementation of the project.
Currently, more than 70 subcontracting companies from China, German, Iran, Russia and other countries are working at the facility.
Recall, Tajikistan stemmed the flow of the Vakhsh River for construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP) mega-dam in late October 1916.
The Roghun HPP is an embankment dam in the preliminary stages of construction on the Vakhsh River in southern Tajikistan. It is one of the planned hydroelectric power plants of Vakhsh Cascade.
The Roghun HPP was first proposed in 1959 and a technical scheme was developed by 1965. Construction began in 1976 but the project was frozen after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
An agreement on finishing the construction was signed between Tajikistan and Russia in 1994; however, as the agreement was not implemented, it was denounced by Tajikistan parliament.
In October 2004, Tajikistan signed an agreement with Russia's RusAl aluminum company, according to which RusAl agreed to complete the Roghun facility and rebuild the Tursunzoda aluminum smelter. In August 2007, Tajikistan formally revoked a contract with RusAl, accusing it of failing to fulfill the contract.
In April 2008, Tajikistan founded OJSC NBO Roghun for completing the construction of the Roghun HPP.
According to data from the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property Management (GosKomInvest), current authorized capital of OJSC NBO Roghun amount to 27.760 billion somoni.
The Government owns 97.1 percent (more than 26.9 billion somoni) of the shares and physical and legal entities assume the 2.9 percent ownership interest (799,900 somoni) in the company.
To raise funds to complete construction of the Roghun HPP the government started to sell shares in Roghun to people on January 6, 2010. Tajikistan has reportedly issued 6 billion somoni worth of Roghun shares.
In response to the request of the bordering countries and especially Uzbekistan, the World Bank has financed the Techno-Economic Assessment Study (TEAS) and Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). The ESIA was published on June 16, 2014 and the TEAS in July 2014. Overall, the ESIA stated that “Most impacts are rather small and easily mitigated, if mitigation is required at all.” and that “There is no impact of the category “strong negative, mitigation not possible,” which would have to be considered as a no-go for the project.”
In 2016, construction duties on Roghun were assigned to Italian company Salini Impregilo. It is estimated that the project will cost $3.9 billion to complete.
The project is broken down into four components, with the most expensive one involving the building of a 335-meter-high rockfill dam — the tallest in the world — which will entail costs of around $1.95 billion. Construction of the Roghun hydropower plant is expected to be completed in 2033.
Two of the six turbines have already started producing energy for sale to raise funding to complete it. The first turbine went into service in November last year and the second one was introduced into operation in September this year.
If built as planned, the dam will be the tallest in the world at 335 meters and have a capacity of 3600 MW.
Salini Impregilo is a dynamic Italian company, which is able to compete with leading global players. The company is currently operating in over 50 countries.
