The group leaders are Italy's Franco Tosi, France's Alstom, Germany's Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation, Austria's VA Tech Hydro, the Energy Ministry affiliate Farab, the UK's Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick and the London office of the US' General Electric (GE). The client is Iran Water & Power Development Company (IWPC), the Energy Ministry subsidiary responsible for hydroelectric projects. The consultant is the local Moshanir Power Engineering Consultants.

The project will involve the construction of two earth-filled concreted-faced dams, each with two 250-MW pump turbines. The power plant will be located underground.

Bids are due in early June for the design, build and finance contract, which will include equipment supply and electro-mechanical works. An award is expected by the end of the year and construction will take 54 months. The civil construction package is to be tendered separately by the government to local firms. The project will now be conventionally financed after initial plans to tender the plant on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis were dropped.

Hydropower is a growth area for Iran, which plans to increase its hydroelectric generating capacity to 7,000 MW from 2,000 MW over the next three years. There are several plants already under construction, including Karoon phases 3 and 4, Karkeh and Godvand. Another two phases for Karoon are under study and are expected to be tendered in the coming six months.