DUSHANBE (TCA) — On May 10, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon visited Rogun city to inspect construction works at the Rogun hydropower plant (HPP) on the Vakhsh River, the president’s press service said. Once completed, the Rogun HPP dam would be the world’s tallest and should give Tajikistan a stable power supply.
Rahmon was familiarized with the process of construction work at the gigantic facility and held a meeting with its engineering and technical staff.
The president was informed that the total amount of work on the dam is 2.7 million cubic meters. After the change of the riverbed, Italy’s Salini Impregilo, the project’s contractor, has laid more than 2 million cubic meters of a mixture of stones and gravels for the construction of the dam.
At present, the welding and installation work of the geomembrane on the dam is being continued; up to date they have been completely connected and installed on an area of more than 18 thousand square meters. The installation of this anti-filtering material will enable the water from the reservoir to flow through the power plant’s sluices.
President Rahmon gave an official start to the construction of the Rogun dam on October 29, 2016.
Tajikistan is heavily dependent on hydroelectric power and regularly experiences electricity outages.
Authorities say the Rogun HPP will be able to provide electricity for the whole country and could also provide parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan with cheap electricity.
Italian construction conglomerate Salini Impregilo won a $3.9 billion contract to build the structure.
Although it will take years to complete the project, the idea is to have two of the six turbines of the Rogun hydro power plant start producing electricity for sale by 2018 to raise funding to complete it. The first turbine is to go into service in August 2018, followed by the second one in October of the same year, the Italian company earlier said.
Once completed, the Rogun power plant will have 6 turbines of 600 MW each with a total installed capacity of 3,600 MW.
