According to Ghaffarzadeh, the construction of the “Maiden Tower” dam, a joint project between Iran and Azerbaijan, has been completed: the opening will take place in the coming days with the participation of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
“This project, implemented 196 kilometers downstream of the Aras River, includes the construction of the Khudaferin reservoir with a capacity of 1.6 billion cubic meters. The project was fully developed and implemented by Iranian engineers,” said the CEO.
The decision to build the “Khudaferin” and “Giz Galasy” hydro-junctions on the Aras River was made back in 1992. At that time, under an agreement reached between the governments of Iran and Azerbaijan, construction work began. In February 1993, during the Karabakh war, officials from both countries opened an auxiliary bridge for the “Khudaferin” dam.
Simultaneously, the Azerbaijani side began construction of an auxiliary bridge for the “Giz Galasy” dam on its territory. However, as a result of Armenia’s occupation of territories along the Aras, Azerbaijan stopped construction on its territory, while Iran continued.
In 1994, during President Heydar Aliyev’s visit to Iran, a memorandum was signed on the implementation of the “Khudaferin” and “Giz Galasy” reservoir projects. The Iranian side continued construction work, agreeing to Azerbaijan’s terms. And in 2008, the “Khudaferin” dam was completed.
In February 2016, during Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Iran, an agreement was signed between the two countries “on the continuation of construction, operation, use of energy and water resources of the ‘Khudaferin’ and ‘Giz Galasy’ hydro-junctions and hydroelectric power stations on the Aras River.”
Based on this agreement, the Iranian side created a 10-kilometer security zone around the part of the project on Azerbaijani territory. Later, after the end of the 44-day Karabakh war, information released by the Iranian side revealed that Armenian occupation forces had been removed from the project area in 2007.
They were replaced by soldiers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. After Azerbaijan liberated its territories from occupation, Iranian troops withdrew to their territory.
The construction of the “Khudaferin” and “Giz Galasy” hydro-junctions will help improve the irrigation of 252,000 hectares of existing land and establish irrigation for 12,000 hectares of new arable land.
