Vietnam builds 260 million dollar hydro power plant
HANOI - Vietnam has started building a hydroelectric plant worth more than 4.1 trillion dong (260 million dollars), a dam project that will displace about 5,000 people, an official has announced.
"We expect that the power plant will come into operation by late 2009," said an economics official from central Quang Nam province who identified himself only as Kham, saying construction has already started.
The Song Tranh 2 project is being built on the Thu Bon River in the mountainous central province that is home to several ethnic minority groups, about 700 kilometres (430 miles) south of Hanoi, he said.
"Around 1,000 households, or 5,000 people, will be relocated for the plant," Kham told AFP.
Once finished, the two-turbine plant with a designed capacity of 190 megawatts will generate 679 million kilowatt hours per year to reduce severe power shortages in the area west of the city of Danang.
The dam project will help local people by raising the Thu Bon River's water level in the dry season and by harnessing downstream floods in the rainy season, the state-run Vietnam News Agency said.
National electricity demand in recent years has risen by 13 to 15 percent in Vietnam, whose economy is growing by 7 to 8 per cent a year, creating an urgent need for more power infrastructure.
Vietnam will need up to 100 billion kilowatts of power by 2010 and around double that by 2020, according to government estimates.
Agence France Presse - March 6, 2006.
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