The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has put back its funding assessment of the Song Bung 4 hydropower project in Vietnam by six months.
Having been scheduled for board assessment earlier this month, the bank now plans to review the project’s funding application in August. Reasons for the rescheduling were not available.
ADB is to assess a application for a loan of US$195M, already slightly down from a previous request of US$196.5M. A grant of US$2M is also sought for livelihood improvements for ethnic minority communities that would be affected by the scheme.
The total project budget is estimated from feasibility studies at US$254M, an increase on the estimate at the pre-feasibility stage of about US$220M.
The 156MW project is to have a 110m high RCC dam of 367m crest length. A 3.1km headrace tunnel is to be built to feed the powerhouse before the waters are discharged by tailrace canal to the river, about 5km downstream of the dam.
Song Bung 4 is to be built in the Vu Gai-Thu Bon river basin in Quang Nam province, near the border with Loa PDR. The reservoir surface area is to be 15.8km2
The plant is to be operated as a peak load facility, which could see fluctuations in water level of up to 1.5m near the station. Following studies commencing in 2005, the scheme is to built by 2011.
Loan proposals for the Song Bung 2 and Song Bung 5 projects, to be built on the same river, are not due for decision by ADB until 2009 and 2010, respectively.