Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said Tuesday construction work has begun on a combined-cycle power plant that will produce 540 megawatts in Syria’s western port city of Latakia.
"The plant is estimated to cost €411 million of which 40% will be provided by the Damascus government," Ardakanian said in Syria on Tuesday, noting that Export Development Bank of Iran is the other financier, Paven, the Energy Ministry news portal reported.
A contract between the Energy Ministry and EDBI says the loan will be repaid when the plant starts work, he said.
Regarding post-war reconstruction cooperation and undertaking joint projects with the Arab nation, he said, "Iranian companies will play an active role in Syria, especially in the key electricity sector."
Iran’s MAPNA Group signed a memorandum of understanding last October to build a power plant in the war-ravaged country.
The MOU was signed by the managing director of MAPNA Group, Abbas Aliabadi, and director of Syria’s General Establishment for Generating Electricity Mahmoud Ramadan, in Tehran in the presence of energy ministers from the two countries.
Syria is in the grip of civil war since 2011 with assorted terrorist groups including IS fighting to topple the Damascus government.
Shunned and sanctioned by western powers, the government is looking to countries like Iran to play a role in rebuilding the country. The war that brought unprecedented death and destruction to the ancient land is seemingly approaching its last days.
Close to 50% of Syria’s electricity networks were been destroyed during the bloody military conflict
According to Syria’s Electricity Minister Mohamed Zuhair Kharboutli, 70 kilometers of pipeline with a capacity to carry 2 million cubic meters of gas per day will be laid to meet the needs of the power plant.
According to official data, close to 50% of Syria’s electricity networks were been destroyed during the bloody military conflict that killed an estimated half million people and displaced 11 million.
Visiting Damascus, Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri co-chaired the 14th session meetings of the high-level Syrian-Iranian committee held in Damascus on Monday. Syria and Iran signed 11 agreements, memoranda of understanding and an executive program to boost bilateral cooperation in the economic, cultural, power, services, investment and housing fields.
MAPNA is a group of Iranian companies involved in development and execution of thermal and renewable power plants, oil & gas, railway transportation and other industrial projects. The company has undertaken projects in Indonesia, Iraq, Syria and Oman.
