Iran and Armenia Unveiled Plans to Construct Hydro Power Facilities over River Aras

The Energy Ministers of Armenia and the Islamic Republic of Iran who met at Yerevan have unveiled the intention of the countries to begin construction of two hydro-electric power production facilities over their border by next year.

Armen Movsisian the energy minister of Armenia and Majid Namjou the Iranian energy minister have signed an accord to begin the construction of the facilities and complete it in five years. A government press release from Armenia indicates that both the leaders believed that such constructions will improve the bilateral ties between the two countries.

The two power plants are to be constructed on both the sides of the river Aras thus allowing the borders of both the countries to have 130 MW power production capabilities. Both the power plants will be constructed by Farad-Sepasad an Iranian construction company. The government of Iran will finance the construction of both the projects while the government of Armenia will pay for its share by supplying the electricity produced from the project to Iran for a period of 15 years and will own the facility afterwards.

Majid Namjou, the Iranian energy minister said that though the announcement of the important project was made soon after the meeting, the final points of the project will be figured only during the visit of Tigran Sarkisian Prime Minister of Armenia to Tehran at the end October. Both the energy ministers officially opened one more energy project for building up high-voltage power lines between the power grids of two countries. This will allow Armenia to export electric power to Iran. The power is produced from the thermal power plants located in Armenia by utilizing the gas provided by Iran.