Work to start on Sudan dam Monday

KHARTOUM, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Work on a Sudanese dam expected to triple electricity capacity in the northern African nation will start on Monday, and the first turbine will come online in 2007, an official with the project said on Sunday.

The $1.73 billion dam, located at Merowe on the Nile 400 km (250 miles) north of the capital Khartoum, will have ten turbines that will have a capacity of 1,250 megawatts (MW) when completed, three times Sudan’s current capacity.

“Work will start on it tomorrow (Monday),” said Mutaz Musa Abdalla Salim, finance director for the dam project.

“The first unit is supposed to come on stream in June 2007, while all the 10 turbines are expected to be fully operational by July 31, 2008,” he said.

France’s Alstom said in November it had a 250 million euro ($306 million) contract to supply a hydroelectric unit.

Sudanese industry currently operates well below capacity because of electricity restrictions, while offices are often empty in Khartoum and other cities due to frequent power cuts, some of them lasting for 12 hours a day.

Salim said all 9,500 families in the area of the dam had agreed to relocate and would receive compensation. He said 600 families had already moved to newly built homes with water, electricity and agricultural land.