It will support the economical development of the administrative zones of our countries, as well as will increase the efficiency of different ongoing economic projects between two countries.

According to the Agreement, the investing company will involve the local labour as far as possible for the construction and exploitation works of  Meghri HPP.

Besides, at all stages of the project implementation there must be maintained all internationally accepted environmental standards.

As you know, the Meghri HPP will have an installed capacity of 130 MW, and annual electricity output about 800 million kWh.

For that purpose, along the  Armenian-Iranian border, from the place named  Apricot Valley, the pressure tunnel will be built with the following parameters: length about 18 km,  diameter - 8.5 m,  the intake capacity of water - 160 m³ / sec and the design head-90m.

Moreover, the building of Meghri HPP will be structured, in which there will be placed two hydroelectric generators with 63.5 MW capacity and other hardware.

The Minister Armen Movsisyan noted, that there is still much to be done.

He marked, that in the frame of the economic cooperation between the two countries, it is foreseen realization of such projects as the Iran-Armenia oil-products pipeline construction project and the Armenia-Iran railway construction project, which will move the economic cooperation of our countries to a qualitatively new level.

The Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjoo, in his opening remarked, that in Iran a special attention is given to foreign relations with Armenia, taking into account the cultural specificities, the cooperation and relations between the leaders of our two countries.

Referring to the Armenian-Iranian energy cooperation, in particular, he said:

- Iran attaches great importance to water diplomacy. 40 percent of the world's population lives in areas, where rivers flow across the borders of different countries. The water had been a link for the people of Iran, and Iran's government is ready to consider any proposal of Armenia in the hydropower sphere, in aim of cooperation.

The Minister said that Iran has the world's third place in the construction of reservoirs.

He also noted, that creation of construction site, equipment supply and design works will follow immediately to groundbreaking.

This investment project is the first one of such kind implementing in Armenia. According to the License Agreement the Iranian investment company will solve on its own all the financial and organization problems concerning the construction and the exploitation of Meghri HPP.The construction will be implemented in 5 years after which the produced energy of Meghri HPP will be transferred to Iran by the 230 kW transmission line being constructed by the investor.

After 15 years of the exploitation Meghri HPP must be given to the Armenian side without indemnity. Moreover, it must be founded jointly that at the transmission time the electromechanical and hydro mechanical devices have resources for the 10-year effective operation, and the tunnel and engineering structures have resources for 30 years.

Almost 2000 professionals and labourers will be included at the various stages of Meghri HPP construction.

According to the arrangement made with the Iranian side, during the construction and the exploitation of Meghri HPP the investment company must integrate the local manpower as far as possible.

In 2007 and 2008, two intergovernmental agreements on building and exploiting power plants on Arax River were signed between the governments of RA and IRI and ratified by the parliaments of the two countries.

On the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2001 between  RA and IRI Ministries of Energy, technical and economical assessment (TEA) works of the construction of the HPPs ordered by “Water and Energy Development” company of Iran were done by “Mahab Ghods”  consulting company. The process works of TEA were coordinated and controlled by the Armenian-Iranian Joint Technical Committee. According to the TEA two HPPs will be built on the Arax river: Meghri HPP on the Armenian side and Gharachilar HPP on the Iranian side.

According to TEA the general technical and economical characteristics of Meghri HPP are the following:

On April 14, 2009 during RA President Serzh Sargsyan's visit to Iran Memorandum of Understanding on financing scheme of Meghri HPP construction was signed between RA Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and Ministry of Energy of Iran. The Iranian side expresses its readiness to buy the total volume of electricity produced by Meghri HPP from the Iranian investor during the all period of repayment of investments.