Tajikistan has called on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Bank (EBRD) to participate in construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power plant (HPP).
The request has reportedly been made during a meeting of Jamoliddin Nouraliyev, First Deputy Head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), with Jurgen Rigterink, First Vice-President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
According to the information, the meeting took place in Washington on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG).
Nouraliyev as well as Tajik Finance Minister Faiziddin Qahhorzoda and NBT head Jamshed Nurmahmadzoda participated in the meeting that took place on April 16-22.
During a meeting with Rigterink, Nouraliyev noted that implementation of projects in the energy sector was one of priorities of Tajikistan’s economy and proposed to expand cooperation in that direction, calling on the EBRD to participate in construction of the Rogun HPP.
Tajikistan stemmed the flow of the Vakhsh River for construction of the Rogun HPP in late October 2016. Explosions were used on October 29, 2016 to block the main riverbed of the Vakhsh River, marking the first substantial step toward building the dam. The work on the Vakhsh River has not affected existing hydroelectric facilities downstream.
Rogun 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 Rogun 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 Rogun 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 Rogun with an authorized capital of 116 million somoni for completing the construction of the Rogun HPP. Current authorized capital of OJSC NBO Roghun reportedly amounts to more than 12 billion somoni.
To raise funds to complete construction of the Rogun HPP the government started selling shares in Rogun to people on January 6, 2010. Tajikistan has reportedly issued 6 billion somoni worth of Rogun shares. The sale of Rogun shares has reportedly earned the government 980 million somoni.
In 2016 construction duties on Rogun 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.
If built as planned, the dam will be the tallest in the world at 335 meters and have a capacity of 3600 MW. (Trend/Business World Magazine)
