TABRIZ, East Azarbaijan Province Managing Director of Azarbaijan Regional Power Company Fatah Qarabagh said here Monday that operations would be launched in near future by a French company to convert mazut fuel of Tabriz Thermal Power Plant to gas.

Qarabagh told IRNA that the project is expected to cost 49 million francs (about seven million dollars) in hard currency plus Rls.8.5 billion and will be implemented within a period of 14 months.

He said that while implementing the project, each of the two units of the power plant, generating 720 megawatts of power combined, will be inactive for a month.

Qarabagh said projects for construction of the 650-megawatt Sahand Power Plant will be launched in near future. He said the project will take about three years to complete.

He put total amount of energy generated in the provinces of East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan and Ardebil at 1,322 megawatts.

(IRNA)