Governor Liyel Imoke
An Indian firm, Engineering Procurement Construction-Brath Heavy Electrical (BHEL) has signed an agreement with the Cross River State government to commence construction work on its 52 megawatts gas-driven Independent Power Plant (IPP) in Calabar or in Adiabo, which is near the state capital.
While the Special Adviser to Governor Liyel Imoke on Investment Promotion, Mr. Gerald Adah, and the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of the state, Mr. Attah Ochinke, signed for the state government, Mr. Ricardo Leandro Garcia, a Spaniard, signed for International Technical Assistance Consultants (ITAC), bringing to fruition two years of negotiations by both parties.
The $30 million project is being financed with a credit loan bilateral agreement between the Federal Government and the government of India, and would be executed within the next 36 months, according to Adah.
He said BHEL got the job because it also manufactures General Electric products even as the company is the Engineering Procurement Construction of the project, stressing that the Indian firm has many years of experience in independent power plants construction to do a neat job for the state government.
“The essence of this project is to complement power supply from the national grid given the increasing demand for electricity in the country. Secondly, it is critical to the industrial development of the state. Government conceived this project in the last two years to boost power supply in Calabar metropolis.
“We hope to complete this project and make it operational before the expiration of the second term administration of his Excellency. We do not want the succeeding administration to inherit it, hence everything would be done to complete it on schedule”, he said.
According to him, about 500 people stand to benefit from direct employment in this plant while thousands of others would be engaged by the industries that the plant would attract, noting that the project was for the Calabar market which government wants to make viable to attract investors and tourists.
The Special Adviser, who said the $30m loan was tied to the Indian company, revealed that beyond Calabar, the state government has lined up the provision of hydro power plants and advised Local Government Areas outside the state capital to exercise patience as government was doing everything possible to provide them with stable power supply too.
He listed the challenges that the project may face to include getting licence from the regulating electricity authorities in the country; and gas supply. But for the latter challenge, the state government hopes to engage one or two companies on how gas would be supplied to the plant.
“We hope to get gas supply from Unicem whose gas pipelines are being laid to run through Calabar to its factory at Mfamosing. If this does not work, we shall talk with other gas producing companies in the country. Gas is key to this project and must be taken care of if this project is to work according to plan”, he said.
Apart from ITAC of Spain, other project managers, supervisors to BHEL include Cross Sector Resources Ltd of Nigeria and Soccoin of Spain.
Construction work is expected to commence in earnest following the signing of this agreement. But the initial delay may be that of site as government is yet to locate a definite site for it.
Construction work is expected to commence in earnest following the signing of this agreement. But the initial delay may be that of site as government is yet to locate a definite site for it.
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