Kyrgyzstan to build cascade of hydropower plants on Naryn River with Russia's assistance by 2019
SASYK, Kyrgyzstan. June 12 (Interfax) - The construction of the Naryn-1 Hydropower Plant has begun in Kyrgyzstan with the Russian company RusHydro's assistance.
"The event taking place today is of immense importance for our country. A cascade of hydropower plants will be built here," Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said at the unveiling ceremony on Wednesday.
"Working together with our Russian partners, we will build the first four hydropower plants within the next three or four years, and in the future we will bring their number in the upper reaches of the River Naryn at least to six," he said.
The construction of a cascade of hydropower plants on the Naryn will create a lot of jobs and will have a significant multiplicative effect for the regional and the national economy, he said.
Kyrgyzstan will also begin constructing the Kambar-Ata-1 Hydropower Plant together with Russia in the fall, and, before the Chinese president's visit to Kyrgyzstan in the fall, "we will be able to sign documents on the joint construction of a cascade of hydropower plants on the River Sary-Jaz," Atambayev said.
Kyrgyzstan has started making steps to ensure its energy independence, Atambayev said. The construction of the Datka sub-station is to be completed on June 20, "which will enable the people living in the southern part of the country to receive electricity bypassing Uzbekistan," he said.
"In a year, we will complete the Datka-Kemin line, and then we will have our own energy ring and could become electricity exporters in the future," Atambayev said.
RusHydro Board Chairman Yevgeny Dod said at the ceremony that the construction of four hydropower plants on the Naryn "is an extremely important project, which will show all investors that they can and should invest in Kyrgyzstan."
"I hope other Russian, Chinese and Turkish investors will follow them. The more of them are in the country, the better the people will live," Dod said.
"The construction of the Naryn Hydropower Plant is only the beginning. There is a great potential for building six hydropower plants, and this will be discussed," Dod sadi.
Kyrgyzstan signed a contract with RusHydro on building four hydropower plants with aggregate capacity of 237.7 MWt in the upper reaches of the Naryn in September 2012.
The first hydropower plant should be completed in 2016 and the fourth in 2019.