There was an open argument over completion date for the construction of 3050 megawatts (MW) Mambilla hydro plant and 700MW Zungeru hydro plant, between the federal government and its contracting partners, Sinohydro Corporation and China National Electric Engineering Corporation (CNEEC), during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project late Tuesday in Abuja.
The Mambilla plant which is expected to be undertaken on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) concession agreement, will cost about $3.2 billion to complete with the federal government contributing 15 per cent of the sum as its counterpart funding obligation while Zungeru will be partly funded by the Exim Bank of China to the tune of 75 per cent. The balance counterpart funding in the sum of $309 million is currently available with the ministry of power.
Argument over the expected delivery date however, began when both parties disclosed different timeframes for the completion of the projects and failed to agree on a common completion date.
While the Minister of State for Power, Mrs, Zainab Kuchi, insisted that the project must be ready for commissioning by President Goodluck Jonathan within the first quarter of 2015, the contractors argued that the 3050MW Mambilla hydro power plant will take approximately six years to complete in line with standard work schedule for the construction of such high profile hydro dam.
According to Kuchi, “Government has no time for dragging of feet, we have a transformation agenda that we are pursuing and we don’t have all the time to waste. We don’t have six years to deliver Mambilla, Mr. President has to commission these projects in 2015 and we are targeting first quarter of 2015,”
But on his part, the project consultant, Mr. Joseph Okoye insisted that from the contractors’ work plan, it will take at least six years to complete Mambilla.
‘’As you are aware that this is not just any project, the plant we are talking about will have several tunnels of about 20 kilometres long, shafts and underground power house, we are talking about the biggest power dam in this part of the world and from our plan this project will not be completed within the time you are talking about which is 2015,” he said.
With the outstanding legal issues that stalled the projects following a legal action initiated by a Nigerian contractor that had initially emerged as the preferred bidder in 2003, Messrs Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd resolved, the project will now be executed by Sinohydro and CNEEC.