DUSHANBE, April 9, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Unit 1 at the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) has been shut down for the planned major repairs, the press center at Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1 reports.

The unit is expected to be reintroduced into operation next month.

The Sangtuda-1 HPP is located on the Vakhsh River in Khatlon province, some 160 kilometers south of Dushanbe. The plant, consisting of four units with total capacity of 670 MW, was officially commissioned 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.