Tajik leader signs order to cancel RusAl hydro project

DUSHANBE, September 4 - Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon signed a resolution unilaterally annulling a cooperation agreement, signed in October 2004, with Russia's aluminum giant RusAl to construct the Rogun hydropower station, a presidential spokesman said. 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. The Tajik government approved the decision last Wednesday, while RusAl's press service said the company had not been notified of the move. A Tajik presidential spokesman said earlier that a joint stock company established by the Central Asian country's government would take up the remaining work to build the facility. The president told journalists in June that Tajikistan would build the hydro facility on its own and signed a resolution in July to start construction and allocate the first $1 million for the project.