The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) plans to allocate 130 million US dollars next year to finance the Roghun Hydroelectric Power Project (HPP), EDB Senior Managing Director Denis Ilyin told reporters in Almaty, Kazakhstan on December 14.
According to him, negotiations on this subject with the Government of Tajikistan and other potential donors (Tajik Government’s partners for development) are currently in an active phase.
EDB's Management Board Chairman Nikolai Podguzov, for his part, noted the importance of implementation of this project not only for Tajikistan but also for the entire region as a whole.
“With a high probability we will already tell in 2024 that we have financed part of this huge project with other participants,” Podguzov said.
The Eurasian Development Bank is a partner in a consortium that was established in 2022 for attraction of funds of international donors for construction of the Roghun hydropower plant. The World Bank coordinates activities of this consortium.
Recall, the EDB has participated in the Donors’ Committee, which discusses issues related to financial support for the Roghun HPP. Speaking at a press conference on November 16, Mr. Podguzov said that “they would like to be able to allocate resources to Roghun.” “We understand the importance of participating in this project, I hope it will work out,” EDB's Management Board chairman added.
In mid-August this year, an official source within the Ministry of Finance of Tajikistan said that the Tajik authorities had already reached an agreement with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on attraction of a soft loan of US$500 million.
Besides, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) reportedly “intends to increase financing of this hydropower facility from US$150 million to US$250 million.”
In Late October this year, the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) announced its readiness to provide a concessional loan of 375 million riyals (equivalent to 100 million US dollars) for completion of the construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant.
The Roghun HPP is one of the largest projects in the region that can become an important factor of development of Tajikistan and the Central Asian region as a whole. It will contribute significantly to the country’s sustainable development by efficiently utilizing natural resources, including “green” energy.
To complete the construction of the Roghun hydropower plant, Tajikistan founded OJSC NBO Roghun in April 2008 after it formally revoked a contract with Russia's RusAl aluminum company in August 2007. 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 somonis worth of 5 million Roghun shares.
In 2016, construction duties on Roghun were assigned to Italian company Salini Impregilo (currently Webuild).
The project is broken down into four components, with the most expensive one involving the building of a 335-meter-high clay core rockfill dam — the tallest in the world — which will entail costs of around US$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 2018 and the second one was introduced into operation in September 2019.
In his address to a joint meeting of parliament, President Emomali Rahmon said on December 23 last year that the construction activities at the site for construction of the Roghun hydropower plant are ongoing dynamically. To this end 3.2 billion somonis (equivalent to 315 million U.S. dollars) were channeled in 2022.
To-date, spending on the construction of the Roghun hydropower plants has reportedly exceeded 40 billion somonis since 2008.
If built as planned, the Roghun hydropower plant is expected to end chronic power shortages in Tajikistan and allow it to export electricity to neighboring countries.
