INDIAN FIRM INVESTS US$60M FOR KAFUE SOLAR PLANT

Fri, 25 Aug 2017 13:16:02 +0000

By Bennie Mundando

AN Indian firm, Sterling & Wilson Construction has commenced works on a 54 megawatt solar power plant in Kafue at a cost of US$60 million which  is expected to be completed by May next year.

Company head of human resource for the Northern Region, Atul Goyal, said 52 hectares of land in Kafue would be utilised for the project and assured Zambia that the project will be completed on schedule.

Mr. Goyal said the project was part of the 600MW solar power generation plants that President Edgar Lungu had directed the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to develop to mitigate the power deficit by lessening the dependency on hydro- power.

This is contained in a statement made available by first secretary press and tourism at the Zambian Mission in New Delhi, India, Bangwe Naviley.

Speaking when he paid a courtesy call on Zambia’s High Commissioner to India, Judith Kapijimpanga at the Zambian embassy in New Delhi, India, Mr. Goyal said the project was important as it would promote clean energy.

He said Zambians will also benefit through the skills transfer as it would be on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

“President Edgar Lungu directed IDC to drive the urgent development and installation of at least 600MW solar power points countrywide, in order to tackle the power deficit in Zambia and so, this project is part of that initiative,” Mr. Goyal said.

And Ms. Kapijimpanga said investing in Zambia’s energy sector was the finest move especially that electricity tariffs were now cost-reflective.

She said the mission would do everything feasible to support such projects as Zambia was in a hurry to increase power generation by looking to other sources of energy as opposed to the traditional water generated electricity which came with devastating consequences in an event of a drought.

Ms. Kapijimpanga also appealed to the contractor to employ youths during the eight months that the company will be working on the project.

“The project would not only profit the over 2 million citizens of Lusaka and Kafue but Zambia as a whole and the eight neighbouring countries. Zambia has managed to avoid conflict and havoc that has marked much of Africa’s post-colonial history, earning itself a status of political stability,” Ms. Kapijimpanga said.