A 159-megawatt combined-cycle power plant project based in the Province of Kerman will be operational next summer, said an official here yesterday. The Minister of Energy Habibollah Bitaraf added that four units of the project, with a generation capacity of 900 megawatts, will be completed by the summer and ready to come on stream. Speaking in the course of an inspection tour of the project, Bitaraf told IRNA that main installations for the plant were imported into the country within the program to attract transfer of foreign technology but that implementation will be undertaken by domestic contractors. Expressing his hope that the power which the plant is to generate would sufficiently meet the energy needs of the southeastern areas of the country, the minister said the plant would boost development of energy-consuming industries in the area as well. Elsewhere in his remarks, Bitaraf pointed to the measures taken to meet the fresh water needs of the province, saying implementation of the project is a major plan of his ministry. To implement the project, a 60-km tunnel with underlying pipes will be built connecting the provincial capital city of Kerman. He said the project has been made public by international tender, and that foreign as well as Iranian partners are to implement the project through finance. He further added that 20 percent of the work required by the project has already been accomplished, and expressed his hope the required financing for its completion will have the support of Kerman representatives in Majlis (Parliament) and the cooperation of relevant organizations. Bitaraf said that in order to meet the fresh water and electricity needs of the country, the giant Karkheh and Masjed-Soleyman dams in Khuzestan Province and the Qaem Combined-Cycle Power Plant in Karaj would be completed in time for the Iranian New Year. (IRNA)