The DRC government now hopes to launch the construction of long-delayed Inga 3 hydroelectric project and hopes work can start by early 2017, the country’s prime minister has announced.
Augustin Matata Ponyo told the media in London that the construction of Inga 3 was in very advanced stages and that the government was in the selection process to decide who will be the main players in this project.
It would choose a developer for Grand Inga from three groups of companies: China Three Gorges Corp. and Sinohydro Corp.; Posco and Daewoo Corp. of South Korea in partnership with Canada’s SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.; and Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA, based in Madrid, and Spain’s Eurofinsa SA.
The project, to be built along the river Congo, would be an expansion of two existing Inga hydroelectric dams, making it potentially the world’s largest hydropower site.
The $12 billion project will produce about 4,800 megawatts and represent the first phase of the larger Grand Inga project, a hydropower complex that would span the Congo river and produce as much as 50,000 megawatts of power when complete, according to the World Bank.
