Sudan, China sign contract to build electrical plant at Merowe Dam

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec 23, 2003 (AP) — Sudan and China on Tuesday signed a US$400 million contract for an electricity generating plant at the Merowe Dam, now under construction some 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of Khartoum.

Qu Zhe, director of China’s Harbin Power Engineering Company, and Usama Abdallah, state minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, signed the contract at the Republican Palace, with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir attending.

The Chinese company will build seven substations and erect some 1,745 kilometers (1,084 miles) of electricity lines over a period of three and a half years, the contract states.

China also holds the US$650 million contract to build the Merowe Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Sudan. The dam will have an installed capacity of 1,250 MW, almost twice the current grand total installed capacity of the country, according to one of the contractors, the China International Water & Electric Corp.

The dam is expected to be finished in about five years.