The headrace tunnel runs 26 km (16 mi) under the Fofa Mountain and at its end, it converts into a penstock with a 500 m (1,600 ft) drop.

[1] The power station was originally slated to be completed in late 2007 but was delayed because of engineering problems during construction.

They argued against the loan because the contract was awarded without competitive bidding in breach of Italian law, because its unusually large size meant that less funding was available for other development projects, no costs for environmental impact assessment of monitoring were included, the project was not commercially viable due to low electricity tariffs in Ethiopia and because it was inappropriate to burden such a poor country with more debt at a time when it had just received debt relief from Italy.

There were also parliamentary questions concerning the project which were left unanswered by the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Luigi Mantica.

In March 2006 the Prosecutors’ Office in Rome instigated criminal proceedings concerning the Gilgel Gibe II hydroelectric project.