President Dmitry Medvedev unveiled a huge hydropower plant on Friday in the impoverished nation of Tajikistan that Moscow hopes will help further boost its economic clout across Central Asia.
The Russian government owns a 75 percent stake in Sangtuda-1, which was built in a river valley about 90 kilometers north of Afghanistan.
During Friday’s opening ceremony, Medvedev and his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rakhmon, turned a key to light up a grid illustrating areas of the country to be supplied by the plant.
When it reaches its designed capacity, the $720 million power plant is due to account for 12 percent of the electricity output in Tajikistan, which suffers from chronic power shortages in the winter.
Tajikistan, with its economy ruined by civil war in the mid-1990s, has pinned its hopes on new hydropower plants built with financial and technical assistance from Russia. Authorities believe that new facilities could eventually enable Tajikistan to satisfy its own energy demands and also allow the sale of power to nearby countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“With this hydroelectric power station, electricity generation in the country will be increased by 8 million kilowatt hours daily, which will contribute to a partial solution to electricity shortages,” Rakhmon said.
As the main stakeholder in Sangtuda-1 and the financial backer for other proposed energy projects, Russia stands to be the primary beneficiary of the development and sale of hydropower in the region.
At a meeting with his Pakistani, Afghan and Tajik counterparts Thursday, Medvedev spoke in support of energy projects as a way to boost economic development in Afghanistan and surrounding countries.
(AP, Reuters)
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