BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 13
By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan continue discussing the draft of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the procedure and conditions of equity participation in the construction and operation of the hydro power plant (HPP) in the Zarafshan River Basin, Trend reports with reference to the press service of the Uzbek Ministry of Energy.
The next meeting of the Uzbek-Tajik working group is scheduled for March and will be held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Work on the joint construction of two HPPs with a total capacity of 320 MW on the Zarafshan River in Tajikistan was envisaged in a joint statement of the President of Uzbekistan and the President of Tajikistan, signed August 17, 2018.
The construction of hydropower plants is planned in stages: first, the construction of the Yavan HPP with an estimated cost of $282 million, a capacity of 140 MW and production of 700-800 million kWh of electricity.
At the next stage, the parties will consider the possibility of building a hydropower plant on the Fandarya River with an estimated cost of $270 million, a capacity of 135 MW and an output of 500-600 million kWh of electricity.
The project is expected to be financed by borrowed and grant funds from international financial organizations.
The constructed hydroelectric power plants will produce up to 1400 million kWh of ecologically clean electricity exclusively for the needs of Uzbekistan.
The project will also support the peak capacity of the unified energy system and create additional jobs during the joint construction and operation of the HPP, as well as the transfer of electricity to other regions of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on a parity basis.
For the first time presented by the Tajik side, the draft intergovernmental agreement on the procedure and conditions of equity participation in the construction and operation of the HPP on the Zarafshan River was reviewed on 24 April 2019 by a working group composed of representatives of interested ministries and agencies of Uzbekistan.
On January 28-29, 2020, the first meeting of the Uzbek-Tajik working group was held to discuss the draft Agreement between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on conditions of equity participation in construction and operation of HPP in the Zarafshan River basin.
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