DUSHANBE, December 5, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP), blocking the Vakhsh River, will tentatively begin in 2016, Homid Orifov, the secretary of Tajikistan’s National Committee of the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) told Yervraziyskoye Razvitiye (Eurasian Development) in an interview.

For this, all tunnels must be ready and the source of financing the project must be found.  “The most important thing is that we have got the go-ahead from the World Bank,” Orifov stressed.      

“The environmental and social impact assessment study has shown that the project does not pose any threat to the downstream countries,” he noted.  

The techno-economic assessment study (TEAS) has also not found any technical contraindications for construction of the Roghun HPP and if Tajikistan adheres to all recommendations of the World Bank, no problems will arise, Orifov said.

According to him, they plan to build the third construction tunnel and strengthen the two existing tunnels in two years.

Construction of the Roghun hydropower plant has been controversial, as Tajikistan''s downstream neighbor Uzbekistan has complained such projects threaten its water supply.