Ahmadinejad opens highest RCC dam

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has inaugurated the Islamic Republic’s highest roller-compact concrete (RCC) dam in the country’s southern province of Khuzestan.

On Thursday, President Ahmadinejad inaugurated the Upper Gatvand Dam, which is located five kilometers from the city of Gatvand and has the country’s second largest reservoir after the Karkheh Dam, IRNA reported.

The new dam measures 182 meters in height and creates a pond with an area of 90 square kilometers, and will supply Khuzestan with 4.5 billion cubic meters of water.

The Upper Gatvand project also includes a plant, which is to generate a major part of Iran’s hydroelectricity.

Two units of the power plant enjoy a 100-percent development and will be ready for launch when the water level in the reservoir is high. Two remaining units will be completed by mid-September.

The facilities at the Upper Gatvand power plant include a 9,000-ton collection of turbines, generators, butterfly valves, electrical transformers, speed limiters and cranes, which will be mounted at the plant in phases.

The project, which was built with an expenditure of almost USD 15 billion, is expected to revolutionize agriculture and industry in Khuzestan through storing the 4.5 billion cubic meters of water and producing an annual 4,250 million kilowatt hours of electricity.

Earlier, Ahmadinejad also inaugurated two major industrial projects, a power plant and a cement factory, worth more than USD 640 million in the northern Iranian province of Golestan.

Last week, the president also inaugurated the new phase of Ardebil power plant, which cost about USD 175 million, in Iran’s Ardebil Province.

The Orumiyeh combined cycle gas plant, with the capacity of 1,000 megawatts, was also inaugurated at a cost of about USD 170 million in West Azarbaijan Province early in July.