DUSHANBE, June 20, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- The planned work on cementation of the base of the dam at the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) has been completed.  

According to open joint-stock company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 station, the cementation work has allowed reducing the natural filtration of water through the dam from 0.93-0.95 cubic meters per second to 0.56 cubic meters per second.

The cementation work has been carried out by specialists from the branch of Russia’s limited liability company, VestTransStroy.  Some 130 tons of sulfate-resistant cement and microcement have been pumped into 14 holes drilled in the dam, the source said.

We will recall that The Tajik and Russian presidents officially unveiled the fourth and last unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP (650 MW) on July 31, 2009.

The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s.  By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s.  The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.

Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 was established to complete the construction of the Santuda-1 power plant.  Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of the company in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005.

Russia owns 75% percent of the shares minus one share and Tajikistan assumes the 25% ownership interest plus one share in Sangtudinskaya GES-1.