As many as 1,000 workers have decided to stay and work on the Lai Chau Hydropower Project in the northern province of the same name, instead of returning home for Tet holiday.

The Ministry of Construction said that the workers would celebrate the festival at the dam’s construction site. They would have one day off and resume work by afternoon on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
About 4,000 workers are currently working day and night on the project.

Apart from generating electricity, authorities expect the dam to prevent flooding during the rainy season and supply water during the dry season.

The hydropower plant, part of the series of three plants across the Da River alongside the Son La and Hoa Binh plants, has an installed capacity of 1,200 MW and a generation capacity of nearly 4.8 billion kWh per year.

Started in January 2011, the project is said to have made scheduled progress and succeeded in preventing flooding last year.

Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the national power utility, is chiefly responsible for the project.

The workforce of four major construction groups - Song Da, Truong Son, Lilama and Licogi – have joined the construction and two foreign companies have helped with project supervision and quality management.-VNA