DUSHANBE, 09.09.2019 (NIAT Khovar) – On the 9th of September the Founder of Peace and National Unity, the Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, H.E. Mr. Emomali Rahmon visited Roghun to participate in the Launch Ceremony of Second Unit of the Roghun Hydropower Plant.

The Prime Minister of Tajikistan H.E. Mr. Qohir Rasulzoda, Mayor of Dushanbe Mr. Rustam Emomali, Director of the Open Joint Stock Company of ‘Roghun Hydropower Plant’ Mr. Khayrullo Safarzoda and other officials met the Leader of the Nation H.E. Mr. Emomali Rahmon at the temporary airport located near the construction site.

The launch of the second unit of this grand hydropower facility has been front-page news covered by the national and international media.

All public TV and Radio Companies of Tajikistan broadcast the solemn ceremony of the launch of the second unit of Roghun Hydropower Plant in live broadcasting.

More than 140 local and foreign journalists, reputable international news agencies from the United States, Italy, Germany, Russia, Japan, United Kingdom, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and other countries  covered this historical event.

The Leader of the Nation, H.E. Mr. Emomali Rahmon got familiar with the construction processes in CT-4 deviation tunnel, spillway tunnel of T-9, air trunk and tunnel, trunk of the turbine of the first unit, construction camp of 5A and exit of the deviation tunnel of CT-3 in the site.

The Leader of the State, H. E. Mr. Emomali Rahmon inspected the quality of works in the diversion tunnel of CT-4 in the plant construction site.

Overall, the length of the CT-4 diversion tunnel, including its exit, is 1798 m and its realizing capacity is 3500m3 per second.

The CT-4 deviation tunnel will serve to spill water during water-abundant seasons in the process of the plant’s construction at the point between 1090 and 1210 m height.

Two headrace spillway tunnels that will be constructed at the level of 1190 m, will be connected to CT-4 branches and they will have the capacity of spilling 1750 m3 of water per second each.

The exit point of the tunnel comprising of two branches will serve during the operation of the plant as well.

We have been informed that the tunnel’s entrance is located at the 1190 m point and its construction is accomplished. Its diameter is 15 m.

The Leader of the Nation, H.E. Mr. Emomali Rahmon visited the plant’s dam after he got acquainted with the construction process.

The Roghun HPP’s dam is raised to the point of 1065 m above the sea and 6 million cubic meter of construction material is laid in layers.

Now the reservour’s water reached 1058 m that makes it possible for operation of the first two units.

To present in total 200 million cubic meter of water stored in Roghun’s reservoir.

While getting familiar with the construction process, the Leader of the Nation, H.E. Mr. Emomali Rahmon moved through the transport tunnel of T-9. The T-9 transport tunnel is the facility that connects the plant’s tail with the dam crest and the site of vertical tunnels for operation of gates of turbine (pipe) waterspilling tunnels.

The transport tunnel of T-9 will also function during the operation of the plant. It stretches to the water delivery pipes and will serve the water delivery pipes’ gates from this point in the future.

Another section of the tunnel goes through the dam’s core and ensures movement pathway up to Shurob Plant. The length of T-9 transport tunnel is 530 m. The tunnel is located in the altitude of 1300 m above the sea.

Today, the President also got familiar with the works in the air tunnel.The air tunnel’s length to the core of vertical air tunnel is 487.5m and it is of 8 meters in diameter and of 8.4 meters in height. It will provide air to transformers hall and powerhouse and will serve to extract dust from this facility.

The tunnel is split into three sections with one section for extraction of dust, the second one for supply of fresh air and the third one for reaching the vertical tunnel and back to its exit point.

The air tunnel connects with the vertical air tunnel and currently drilling of a hole with 12.1 m in diameter is  going on.

The First Unit’s Turbine Tunnel is another area, where the Leader of the State got familiar with the process of activities.

The vertical water intake tunnel of the first unit starts at the point of 1172 m and goes down to the point 956 m and its overall height is 216 m. Drilling activities has started with 8.7m of diameter and its final point diameter will be 7m, which will be fully covered with iron.

According to the received information the drilling activities in its pilot shothole with the diameter of 2.5 m are accomplished.

In the oversight area No 5a, the Leader of the Nation visited the accomplished and ongoing facilities, such as 500KW and 220KW Gas Insulated Switchgears, the plant’s dam site and other facilities.

The last facility the President visited during his visit was the deviation tunnel of ST-3.

Third floor construction tunnel (ST-3) was built with a view to transfer water from 1035 meters to 1145 meters.

The total length of the tunnel is 1858 meters. The tunnel’s capacity is 3500 cubic meters per second. The ST-3 tunnel has several auxiliary tunnels.

The exit of the ST-3 tunnel is located at 946-973 meters above sea level, with height of 26 meters and length of entrance — 100 meters.

It should be noted that the third drainage tunnel is one of the important facilities for ensuring the safety of the plant during the possible overloading with installation of repairing, emergency and main segment gates that was built for 2.8 billion Somoni.

Among other tunnels, it is the first tunnel that was built within the framework of construction the hydroelectric power station in the period of independence.

After familiarizing with the process of completed works in the construction area, the Head of State Mr. Emomali Rahmon highly appraised the quality of works and urged workers to timely and efficiently implement constructive measures at the “Rogun” hydroelectric power station.

After acquaintance with the work done at the site of the hydropower station, President Emomali Rahmon officially launched the second unit of the “Rogun” Hydropower Plant.

Thus, on September 9, 2019, another important and momentous event occurred in the history of sovereign Tajikistan and took a firm step towards achieving complete energy independence.

The ceremony was attended by the employees of the plant, activists, scientists, youth and veterans of the plant.

When the second unit was commissioned, the electricity generated was also transferred to the general power grid of the country.

It is timely to remind that, construction of the Rogun Dam was initiated on October 29, 2016 with the direct participation of the Head of State. On the same day, President Emomali Rahmon sat behind a bulldozer and closed the Vakhsh River with an hour and a half to commence the construction of the dam.

On November 16, 2018 the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Emomali Rahmon inaugurated the first unit of the “Rogun” hydroelectric power station and launched the activities of this great facility the century that will give impetus to the development and prosperity of the country.

The same day, the Leader of the Nation, His Excellency Mr. Emomali Rahmon, at the location of the construction of the Rogun Hydropower Plant, an important facilities of the plant — a high-voltage power transmission line of 500 kV «Dushanbe-Rogun» and closed separation device of Roghun HPP were commissioned with 19 electro-gas device 500 kV and 4 electro-gas device 220 kV.

Shortly after launching of the first unit of the Kohki  Nur — » Palace of  light, » the plant has generated and transmitted 570 million kWh of electricity to the country’s power grid.

The Rogun Hydropower Plant is the largest unit of the Vakhsh River Hydroelectric Power Plant with six aggregates, each with capacity of 600 megawatts. Rogun will be the largest hydropower plant in the region with a capacity of 3,600 megawatts (over 17 billion kWh). This number is one and a half times more than the production capacity of the Norak HPP.

Each visit of the Head of State to the Roghun HPP enhanced the spirit of the employees of this great Project and it was obvious that they were guided by the instructions and guidance of the President of the country H.E. Mr. Emomali Rahmon on stable and qualitative performance of their work.

More than 25 thousand workers, engineers and other technical personnel have made a significant contribution to the construction of the hydroelectric power station under the guidance of the Leader of the Nation, His Excellency Mr. Emomali Rahmon. Workers continue their efforts to bring other units into operation.

Development of the energy sector will play a key role in the consistent economic development of Tajikistan, especially in the implementation of the fourth national goal — rapid industrialization of the country.

After the full commissioning of this power station, it is possible to create dozens of small and large industrial enterprises and to create thousands of new jobs in the country.

The Government has made energy independence one of its strategic goals and has mobilized all resources and opportunities to achieve it.

Since the independence of Tajikistan, its energy infrastructure has cardinally changed, with the implementation of a number of investment projects allowed establishing a unified energy grid in the country and ensuring complete power supply to the national economy and population from domestic producers.

Around 12 public investment projects with the total amount of 16bn TJS aimed at developing the energy sector and supported by the Government of Tajikistan are under implementation at present and 7.6bn TJS has been absorbed so far.

During the years of independence, rational use of hydropower resources, the construction and reconstruction of small and large hydroelectric power stations has begun, as well as high voltage power lines and transmission power lines have been built with the goal of implementing constructive plans and programmes of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan in achieving energy independence and implementation of visionary goals of the Leader of Nation Mr. Emomali Rahmon to ensure a decent life for the people of the country.

Start of reconstruction works and construction of hydro power plant “Roghun”, the launch of the first unit of the HPP “Roghun”, commissioning of high voltage line of 500 kV “Dushanbe — Rogun”, the commissioning of closed switchgear of gas-fired 500 kV and 220 kilovolt hydroelectric power plant «Rogun”, the commissioning of the HPP “Sangtuda — 1 and Sangtuda-2», «Pamir» — 1″, the hydroelectric power plant “Tajikistan” at an altitude of 3500 meters above sea level in the remote Murghab district, thermal power station «Dushanbe-2», 500-kilovolt power station «Dushanbe» and «Sughd» , 500-kilovoltage transmission lines “South-North”, closed switchgear of gas-fired 500 kV and 220 kilovolt hydroelectric power plant “Nurek”, 220-kilovolt of power plant “Lolazor”, “Khatlon”, “Aini”, “Shahristan”, “Shahrinav”, “Heran-2”, 220 kilovoltage line “Lolazor-Khatlon”, “Tajikistan-Afghanistan”, “Khujand-Aini”, “Kairakkum-Sughd”, “Ayni — Rudaki”, the launch of the project CASA-1000, the start of reconstruction project of the “Kairakkum HPP”, “Nurek”, “Aini-2”, Launch of “Temurmalik” power plant in the city of Khujand are the great achievements of Tajikistan in achieving full energy independence, that was carried out under the direct leadership of the Leader of Nation Mr. Emomali Rahmon.

The Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, along with the construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power station, will attract more than 1,1 billion US dollars, which is equal to 11 billion Somoni, only for the reconstruction of the Nurek, Sarband and Kairokkum hydroelectric power stations.

A new capacity of more than 1,900 megawatts of have been put into operation due to the construction of Sangtuda-1 and Sangtuda-2 hydroelectric power plants, Dushanbe-2 thermal power plant, the first unit of Rogun hydroelectric power plant and a series of small hydroelectric power plants.

Also, through the construction of power transmission lines “South-North”, “Rogun-Dushanbe”, “Lolazor-Khatlon”, “Geran-Rumi”, “Tajikistan-Afghanistan”, “Khujand-Aini”, “Aini-Rudaki”, “Isfara-Asht”, “Isfara-Sughd” over 1,100 km length, 4 substations of 500 kilovolt, 10 power plants of 220 kilovolt and other power plants provided sustainable operation of the unified energy system.

All these creative measures of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Emomali Rahmon are aimed at the development and prosperity of the economy of the country, achieving full energy independence and ensuring a decent life of the Tajik people, the outcomes of which in the development of our beloved country are considered good and successful.

After the commissioning of the second unit of the Rogun hydroelectric power plant, the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Mr. Emomali Rahmon, delivered a speech in front of drivers, tunnel constructors, paramedics and electricians, engineers and heads of construction companies at the solemn event.

President Emomali Rahmon congratulated all citizens of the country and foreign compatriots on this historic event.

The Leader of the Nation, Mr. Emomali Rahmon, said with confidence that thanks to the selfless and the respected work of the proud Tajik people, all our good intentions and constructive plans will be realized soon.

It was stressed that this vital facility will be built in accordance to the international norms and safety standards, using the latest technologies, and in the near future will serve not only the residents of Tajikistan, but also the countries of the region.

The construction of hydroelectric power stations on the rivers of Tajikistan will help to ensure balance between electricity and water consumption, and will ensure sustainable water management and reduce electricity shortages in the region.

One of the features of the modern era is the global trend of formation and promotion of the “green economy” and on this basis it is vital turn to renewable and environmentally friendly sources of electricity production.

About 60% of the water resources of Central Asia are formed in the territory of Tajikistan, and our country ranks 6th in the world in terms of production of “green energy” from renewable sources.

The Head of State stressed that «We intend to use this fundamental resource, which is one of the central prerequisites for the formation of a «green economy», in the interests of the country and region”

Tajikistan is one of leading countries in addressing the issues of disaster risk reduction, climate change, access to clean drinking water and sanitation, environment, infrastructure and investment, water resources management and its importance and role in a sustainable economy.

These initiatives will allow to improve the position of the Republic of Tajikistan in the world on the use of renewable energy.

In conclusion, the President Mr. Emomali Rahmon once again sincerely congratulated the entire people of proud and independent Tajikistan on the launch of the second unit.