The Georgian government awarded a $150 million hydropower project to Turkey’s Kolin Construction, Tourism Industry and Trading Co. Inc., the Energy Ministry said.
Kolin will build a cascade of four hydropower plants with a minimum total capacity of 105.7 megawatts on the Tekhuri River in the Samegrelo region of western Georgia, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement today. Construction will take four years, the ministry said.
Under ministry rules, investors given hydropower plant concessions agree for 10 years to sell power for domestic consumption only during three months each winter, when the former Soviet republic often experiences shortages, and are free to sell to any customer in Georgia or abroad for the rest of the year.
President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Nov. 8 that Georgia may receive as much as $5 billion of investment in hydropower over the next seven years.
To contact the reporter on this story: Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi at hbedwell@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gomez in Prague at jagomez@bloomberg.net