Obayashi Corp. announced on November 14 that it has been awarded a contract of building the Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Plant in Laos. Located in Nam Ngiep River, a tributary of Mekong River in North Lao, one of the largest concrete gravity dams in the nation will be built with two power stations. Obayashi broke the ground in October, aiming to finish the preparatory works such as roads, river diversion and excavation by 2015. The civil work for the main dam body will be undertaken in 2016, which is scheduled for completion in January 2019.

The project has been implemented by Lao government under the Building-Operation-Transfer method. The Nam Ngiep 1 Power Co. Ltd., a special purpose company consisting of three sponsors; a subsidiary of Kansai Electric Power Company Inc. of Japan, a subsidiary of Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and a subsidiary of Lao government, is commissioned to the project.

Holding water of 2.2 billion m3, the dam will generate approx. 290 MW electricity in total. It is 148 meters high with body of about 2 million m3 and the top length is 530 meters. (2013/11/15)