India Approves 350m Dollars for Uganda Power Plant
Posted on: Thursday, 27 March 2008, 03:00 CDT
Text of report by Kiganda Ssonko entitled "India okays 350m dollars for Uganda power" published by Ugandan newspaper The New Vision website on 27 March
India has approved a 350m dollars (595bn shillings) line of credit for setting up a hydro-power plant along River Nile, Uganda's high commissioner to India has said.
Nimisha Madhvani said the power plant, which would be constructed by Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL), would support developments especially industrialisation.
She said the hydro-power plant would supplement Uganda's power capacity.
"River Nile's potential to generate power is far below capacity and over 2,200MW can be generated along the river on Uganda's part only. India has approved the money and soon, the Ugandan government will come out with a full report," Madhvani said at the India- Africa project partnership conference in New Delhi recently. It was organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and EXIM Bank.
Local Government State Minister Hope Mwesigye said the 100MW projected power plant at Isimba falls was expected to start after BHEL undertakes the feasibility study in a few weeks. "Soon, BHEL will start a feasibility study that will determine the amount of power to be generated. But provisionally and according to initial plans, we look at 100MW," she said.
Rajeev Kumar Gupta, BHEL's senior international operations manager, said: "BHEL has modern technology for manufacturing of thermal sets of up to 500MW and has the capability to manufacture sets of 1,000MW rating. We have already enhanced our manufacturing capacity to 10,000MW per year."
"We are also in power transmission, industrial oil and gas, transportation, solar power panels and power generation. We hope Ugandans will benefit fully from our stay as we undertake the project," Gupta said.
Investment State Minister Prof Ssemakula Kiwanuka Madhvani and Mwesigye toured BHEL's hydro equipment manufacturing plant at Bhopal.
Originally published by The New Vision website, Kampala, in English 27 Mar 08.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Africa. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: BBC Monitoring Africa
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