
Maputo, 27 Mar (AIM) – The new electricity transmission line, connecting the Mozambican and Malawian grids, should be completed on time, by December this year, according to the Indian contractor in charge of the job, cited on Monday by Radio Mozambique.
The high voltage line will run for 218 kilometres. Once the red tape holding up the project was overcome, work began on the Mozambican side of the border, on the 141 kilometres from the Matambo substation, in Tete province, to Zobue, on the Malawian border.
The second phase is the construction of the line within Malawi, from Zobue to Balaka, a distance of 77 kilometres.
The undertaking will cost a total of 127 million US dollars. Of this sum, 92 million is a grant to the Mozambican government and 35 million is a soft loan to the Malawian government. The finance comes from the World Bank, Norway, Germany and the European Union (the latter two are represented by the German development bank, KFW).
The consul-general of Malawi in Tete, Happy Saka, said this is the start of a new chapter of development for his country, since the interconnection will minimize the energy crisis currently facing Malawi.
For the governor of Tete province, Domingos Viola, implementation of this project will increase Mozambique’s exports of electricity, and strengthen the bilateral relations between Mozambique and Malawi.
The first stone was laid in this regional interconnection project by Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, and his Malawian counterpart, Lazarus Chakwera, on 21 April last year, at Matambo, in Tete province.
(AIM)
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