New dam project underway in Laos' Luang Prabang province

Dec 28, 2011, 7:45 GMT

Vientiane - Construction of a 308-million-dollar hydropower dam on the Khan River in Laos' Luang Prabang province is 15 per cent completed and should be operational by 2015, reports said Wednesday.

A ceremony at the site in northern Laos was held Monday, the Vientiane Times reported.

'Construction work on the project is now 15 per cent complete,' Sisavath Thiravong, managing director of the state-run Electricite du Laos, said.

He said the project involves a total investment of about 2.4 trillion kip (308 million dollars), of which 95 per cent had been borrowed from the Exim Bank of China.

China's Sinohydro Company is handling construction of the dam, which will be 136 metres high and 365 metres long, creating a reservoir of 30.5 square kilometres with a capacity to store 686 million cubic metres of water, the newspaper reported.

The hydroelectric plant will have an installed capacity of 130 megawatts to generate 558 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

Sisavath said the electricity will supply Laos' northern provinces and the capital Vientiane.

Laos is a poor country that is rich is water resources.

The country's main export is hydro-generated electricity to neighbouring Thailand.