Tajikistan Launches Giant Dam To End Power Shortage
Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published November 16, 2018 | 03:59 PM
Tajikistan on Friday inaugurates a $3.9 billion hydro-electric power plant, a mega project that will enable the impoverished country to eliminate domestic energy shortages.
Rogun, Tajikistan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Nov, 2018 ) :Tajikistan on Friday inaugurates a $3.9 billion hydro-electric power plant, a mega project that will enable the impoverished country to eliminate domestic energy shortages.
Built on the Vakhsh River in southern Tajikistan, the plant championed by President Emomali Rakhmon is expected to reach a height of 335 metres (1,099 feet) in a decade, becoming the world's tallest hydro-electric dam.
The first of six turbines in the Rogun hydroelectric dam goes online on Friday, with the power plant expected to reach capacity of 3,600 megawatts -- the equivalent of three nuclear power plants -- when completed.
At present, Rogun still resembles a vast construction site, with rocky earth covering the territory from which the powerful Vakhsh flowing through the Pamir mountains was diverted.
In 2016, Rakhmon, who is a former collective farm boss, climbed into a bulldozer at a groundbreaking for the dam, in a sign of the president's personal attachment to the project.
It will double energy production in the country of nearly nine million people, alleviating a long-lasting, debilitating national energy deficit. Surplus energy will be sold to neighbours such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
Plans to build a dam in southern Tajikistan date back to the Soviet era, but the project was scaled up following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In 2017, Tajikistan raised $500 million from an inaugural international bond to help finance the construction.
Authorities hope that once the dam goes online it will generate money to financefurther construction.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
HEC reviews curricula for environmental sciences degree programme
ICC Asia looking forward to an action-packed Asia Cricket Week
Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 Ambassador
Greece hands Olympic flame to 2024 Paris Games hosts
Two Kyiv hospitals evacuating over feared Russian strikes
World must act on neurotech revolution, say experts
Charles & Catherine's cancer diagnoses
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
King Charles to resume some public duties during cancer treatment: palace
US defense chief announces $6 bn in security aid for Ukraine
Heavy rains cause damage to Spezand-Taftan railway track
Woman stabbed in Israel, attacker killed: police
More Stories From World
-
NFL will allow players to wear Guardian Cap helmets in games
4 hours ago -
Football: German Bundesliga table
4 hours ago -
Football: Italian Serie A result
4 hours ago -
Football: German Bundesliga results
4 hours ago -
US troops to leave Chad in second African state withdrawal
4 hours ago -
Plastics pollution may be solved without production cap: Canada minister
4 hours ago
-
Biden stalls on menthol cigarette ban fearing Black vote backlash
4 hours ago -
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
4 hours ago -
6,000 French police to welcome Olympic torch amid bonus boost
5 hours ago -
Taiwan hit by several quakes, strongest reaching 6.1-magnitude
5 hours ago -
'Ballistic' Bairstow stars as Punjab pull off record T20 chase
5 hours ago -
Tennis: ATP/WTA Madrid Open results - 2nd update
5 hours ago