Tajikistan annuls agreement with RusAl on hydro construction

Tajikistan's government made the decision Wednesday to revoke a cooperation agreement, signed in October 2004, with Russia's aluminum giant RusAl to construct the Rogun hydropower station. The construction of the Rogun hydro, whose design capacity is 3,600 MW, was started in 1976 but mothballed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And in 1994, the hydro was washed out by a flood. After the Russian-Tajik contract was signed, Tajik authorities and RusAl failed to reach an agreement on the completion of the project, and work was not started. A Tajik presidential spokesman said that a joint stock company established by the Central Asian country's government would take up the remaining work to build the facility. While commenting on the Tajik decision, the head of RusAl's Dushanbe office, Konstantin Zagrebelny, said he had not received any notification from the Tajik authorities. "Such agreements cannot be severed unilaterally," he said. RusAl's press service also said the company knew nothing of the move.