President Lazarus Chakwera and Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, yesterday laid a foundation stone for the 400kv Mozambique-Malawi Transmission Project which aims at establishing a transmission link between the two countries in order to meet increasing electricity demand in Malawi.
Speaking in Marara district, Mozambique during the ground breaking ceremony on Thursday, President Chakwera said apart from providing room for Malawi to tap more and export power into the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), the transmission line will also provide a safe and reliable interconnection of power which will enable initial supply of 50MW power from Mozambique to Malawi.
“Malawi and Mozambique were badly hit by the Cyclone Ana early this year. The cyclone damaged Kapichira Hydropower Station resulting in the whole installed capacity of 129MW being taken out of the system thereby exacerbating power deficit in Malawi,” explained Chakwera.
President Chakwera, who is on a four-day State Visit to Mozambique, indicated that Electricity Supply Cooperation of Malawi (ESCOM) has re-engaged Electricity Development of Mozambique (EDM) for the possible increase of the power supply which will see Malawi getting an extra 60MW from Mozambique giving a total of 110MW to be transmitted through this line.
In his remarks, President Nyusi described the interconnection project as a significant catalyst in strengthening historical relations of friendship, brotherhood as well as solidarity between the two countries.
Funded by World Bank, KFW and the European Union, the project is expected to create 1000 jobs to the people of both countries.
In November last year, the two presidents laid a foundation stone for the construction of a similar project at Phombeya Substation in Malawi during president Nyusi’s state visit to Malawi.
By Loness Gwazanga – Malawi News Agency
