DUSHANBE, January 10, Asia-Plus  -- Participation of Kazakh investors in construction of a 160 megawatt power plant on the Khingob River in Nourobod district, eastern Tajikistan is still under question, Rashid Gulov, deputy engineer-in-chief with Tajik state energy company Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems), said.   

According to him, representatives from Kazakh company ATsPNK-519, which won the tender for construction of the Nourobod power plant, were supposed to arrive in Tajikistan for signing a final agreement at the end of last year, but they did not come.   

He added that Kazakhstan’s ATSPNK-519 had also sown interest in participation in implemented of other energy projects in Tajikistan, including construction of power-transmission lines.  

According to Gulov, the estimated budget for construction of the Nourobod station is $200 million.

We will recall that a number of bilateral agreement were signed between Tajikistan and Kazakhstan on investment and trade during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev''s visit to Dushanbe in September 2007.  

Nazarbayev noted that time that the sides had agreed to set up a joint investment fund of $100 million that would be used to invest in projects in Tajikistan.  He also noted that the governmental Investment Fund of Kazakhstan was considering participating in projects to build small power plants in Tajikistan.  He said Kazakhstan''s sustainable-development fund, Kaznya, is ready to finance the construction of the Nourobod hydroelectric power plant in eastern Tajikistan.