Tajikistan receives ADB funds for Golovnaya hydropower plant Rehab, upgrades

Dushanbe, Tajikistan The Asian Development Bank has approve a US$136 million grant for the refurbishment of electrical and mechanical equipment at Tajikistan's 240-MW Golovnaya hydropower plant.

The funding represents the largest single transaction ever provided to the country, ADB said. The Golovnaya hydroelectric plant is located along the Vakhsh River and was commissioned in 1962. Once rehabilitation is completed in 2020, the plant is expected to have an increased output capacity of 252 MW.

"Most of the physical assets in the energy sector in Tajikistan were constructed during the Soviet era and need urgent rehabilitation and technological upgrade," ADB country director C.C. Yu said. "ADB's primary focus is to help improve the performance of the sector by rehabilitating physical infrastructure and helping reform the sector to make it more commercially viable." Tajikistan's government will also provide $34 million in funding, with Barki Tojik acting as the project's executing agency.

HydroWorld.com reported in September that ADB and Tajikistan had signed a memorandum of understanding for the financing, though the amount at that time was said to be worth $116 million. 

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/12/tajikistan-receives-adb-funds-for-golovnaya-hydropower-plant-rehab-upgrades