A Supreme Court judge overruled the decision by the country’s Regional Federal Tribunal (TRF1) two weeks ago which called for a halt to construction until further independent assessments of environmental impacts had been carried out and indigenous peoples had been consulted.

The Belo Monte Dam, located on Xingu River Basin, will have an installed capacity of 11,233MW. The project was given its final environmental licence in June 2011 by the country’s environmental agency Ibama. The project is being developed by the Norte Energia consortium.