Georgia, Tbilisi, Sept. 16 /Trend N.Kirtzkhalia/
Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili urged the people not to oppose the construction of water power plants over the entire country.
At a ground-breaking ceremony of the construction of the Shuakhevi water power plant at Adjara the prime minister said that Georgia needs to construct new additional power plants to generate additional electricity.
"For Georgia it is important to build a power plant firstly in order to ensure its energy security and then to export electricity. Despite the fact that some politicians have managed to raise the population against the construction of a water power plant on the pretext of environmental protection, we need to continue the development of energy for the progress of our country," the Prime Minister said.
Ivanishvili said that "some individuals have managed raise the Patriarch of Georgia against the construction of two water power plants, who in turn personally asked the Prime Minister to refrain from building power plants, as well as the largest Khudoni one.
"But our Patriarch is wise and I managed to convince him of the need to build a power plant and in fact we will not inflict any damage to nature," the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister noted that power plants are built in Scandinavia, Austria, Switzerland, without any slightest damage to the nature and urged the population of the Svaneti region to support the construction of Khudoni.
"Tomorrow the issue of construction of the Khudoni power plant will be discussed and I ask people to support this project despite the fact that some areas will be flooded. But Georgia needs this and especially the development of the Svaneti region," Ivanishvili said.
Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Kakha Kaladze attended the groundbreaking ceremony of construction of a new power plant at Adjara.
The rated capacity of the Shuakhev water power plant will amount to 178 MW and annual electricity output will be 445.1 million kilowatt/hours.
The project envisages the construction of two dams and reservoirs.
Alongside the construction of the Shuakhev power plant, investors will begin construction of the Skhalta water power plant which is included in a cascade of water power plants.
The rated capacity of this water power plant will be 5.8 MW and the annual power generation will be 20.8 million kilowatt/hours.
The investment cost of both projects is $300 million. The construction of the power plant is planned to be completed in the second half of 2016.
Construction of a cascade on the River Acharistskali is being carried out by the Indian company Tata Power (40 per cent), Norway's Clean Energy Invest (40 per cent) and IFC InfraVentures (20 per cent) which was established at the first stage by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).