KHUJAND, September 12, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Installation of transformers at substation for the 500-kV power grid South-North has started in Sughd’s Ghonchi district. 

The project manager Abdumannon Nourmatov told Asia-Plus on Friday that the transformer weighing more than 350 tons is being installed by sections and the installation work is scheduled to be finished before the end of September.  

In parallel, they are installing another equipment of the substation.  Some 80 percent of the equipment has been delivered to the province and footings for installation of the equipment have already been laid, the project manager said. 

According to him, the first 30 power transmission poles have already been installed in Ghonchi and Istaravshan.   

In all, 348 60-meter poles will be installed in the Sughd province,” said Nourmatov, “Some 200 of them will be installed in the mountain areas.”  The transmission poles are expected to be finished in the province in May 2009.  

The power grid will be 325 kilometers in length. 

We will recall that Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) power holding and China’s China Theban Electric Apparatus Stock Co (CTEAS) signed a contract on construction of the 500-kV power grid South-North in Dushanbe on April 19, 2006.   the estimated budget for construction of the power grid is 281.3 million US dollars.  China’s Exim (Export/Import) Bank provides 95 percent of the amount in a preferential loan, carrying an annual interest of 2 percent, and Tajikistan finances 5 percent of the project’s value.