The government of Zimbabwe has lined up various infrastructure rehabilitation programmes around the country for the next few years, including expansion of Kariba Power Plant, which began last month.
The expansion will involve construction of Kariba South Power station that will add 600MW after expansion. The plant is being built at Hwange and undertaken by Mukomo, the country’s second largest coal miner.
According to the Deputy Minister for Energy and Power Development Mr Mutezo Munacho, the company has been given the license to construct the plant and will operate as an Independent Power Producer (IPP).
Although the Minister did not disclose what will be spent on the plant, a similar project undertaken by the Chinese Sino Hydro, has cost $1,2 billion. The project is expected to complete as early as next year.
This means that more money is required to be added to the existing US $14.bn infrastructure facelift.
At the moment, the government is facing funding issues hence has to work on a strategy to cater for the failing state of dams, telecoms, roads, state properties and other types of infrastructure.
Some projects the government has not been able to complete due to funding include the rehabilitation of the Airport road in Harare, dualisation of Harare- Masvingo road and the Harare Chitungwiza railway line which have stayed for long.
The government aims to ensure that sewer and telecoms systems, water supply systems and roads are catered for in order to rebuild the travel sector which impacts the economy of the country highly.
Currently, Zimbabwe has US $27bn in blueprint, thus requiring more funders.
Read the full article here: http://constructionreviewonline.com/2014/08/04/kariba-power-plant-rehabilitation-among-projects-take-us-14-bn-zimbabwe/
