Zungeru, Kashimbila hydro power projects for commissioning Dec – FG

The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, declared Tuesday that the Zungeru and Kashimbila Hydro Power projects would be ready by December this year.

Aliyu stated this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Power, to defend his ministry’s 2022 budget estimates.

He however explained that lack of adequate rainfall this year to power the turbines could prevent it from supplying the projected 700 megawatts of electricity after its inauguration.

He also said the growing insecurity challenges in Niger State could prevent the inauguration of the multi-billion naira project when completed in December.

The minister explained that the workers, who would operate the power project could only relocate to the site and live there if their security were guaranteed.

He nevertheless said the 40 megawatts Kashimbila power project would start operation after its inauguration in the second week of December.

He said the federal government had paid the N10billion owed contractors and that everything was in place for the take off.

The Mabilla power project he explained, was stalled because of legal issues which the Minister of Justice was currently handling.

He said, “The problem with the take off of the Mabilla power project is the legal issues surrounding it which the Minister of Justice is currently handling.

“It is only the Minister of Justice that can speak on such high profile legal case.

” We have scheduled the Zungeru hydro power project for inauguration in December 2021. We have met with the contractors recently and they are looking at December, not in the horizon.”

The Kashimbila Multipurpose Dam project was initially designed with an installed capacity of 18MW, however, following the detailed hydrological modelling and yield analysis carried out by Aurecon, a 40MW installed capacity was recommended and implemented.

The multipurpose dam would also have the capacity to generate electricity, and a water treatment plant capable of supplying 60,000 cubic meters of water to about 400,000 people, irrigation facility of about 2,000 hectares and an airstrip.