HARARE - Expansion of Kariba South power plant is yet to commence as China’s Sino Hydro Corporation (SHC) is still moving construction equipment from Zambia, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said.
SHC won the tender for the $355 million project, the bulk of which will be funded by Export Import Bank of China under a deal signed with the Zimbabwe government.
“The contractor took occupation on the first of January and I am yet to establish whether they have completed moving their equipment from Kariba North across the dam wall to our side of the border. So the contractor is already in situ at the construction site,” he said.
“When exactly they will start will depend on how soon they are able to move their equipment across the dam wall. As you know, this Chinese contractor has just finished constructing Kariba North for the Republic of Zambia and they are just moving across the border to do the same on our side to create an additional 300 megawatts,” said Chinamasa on Tuesday.
On completion, the power station’s output will be boosted to 1050 megawatts (MW) from the current 750MW.
The project is expected to be complete by 2017.
Government secured funding for the project, after signing a $319 million deal with the Chinese multi-lateral financial institution about three months ago with Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) expected to contribute 10 percent of the total cost of the expansion exercise.
At present, ZPC — a subsidiary of power utility Zesa Holdings — is generating between 1 300 and 1 400 MW against a daily national demand of 2 200MW.
This comes as Zimbabwe requires $5,8 billion to finance power generation projects which will increase output to a total of 6600 megawatts.