Zesco floats tender for Kafue power station

ZESCO Limited has floated a tender for the development of the 750 megawatts Kafue Gorge Lower Power station, company acting managing director Victor Mundende has said.

Meanwhile, the power utility will commission the 120 megawatts Itezhi Tezhi Power Hydro in the fourth quarter.
Mr Mundende said Kafue Gorge Lower hydro-electric project has been on the drawing board for a long time, hence the floatation of the tender seeking local and foreign firms willing to develop the project.

“We have floated a tender; it has been on the drawing board for a long time. We could have finished the project by now, but we have gone ahead and floated the tender and we intend to commence the works before the end of this year,” Mr Mundende said in an interview during the 51st Zambia International Trade Fair.

He also said the firm has the backbone of the optic fibre network in terms of high speed broadband communication.
“We have the backbone of the fibre, all the mobile phone companies ride on the fibre, as we are connected countrywide. E-government and the digital migration will ride on our fibre. All these are reforms,” he said.
On the Itezhi Tezhi project, Mr Mundende said project which is jointly being undertaken by Zesco Limited and Tata Africa is progressing well.
The project will be commissioned in October.

He said the firm is spending huge amounts of money on reforming the power sector.
“Our five-year business plan is about US$5 billion and work in progress is about US$3 billion. These are huge capital projects and huge sums of money,’” he said.