Ethiopia’s mega dam project show remarkable progress: gov’t
Two turbines of the mega dam could start generating hydroelectric power as early as next year, according to a report by state media, Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC).
Ethiopia’s Water, Irrigation and Energy Minister, Seleshi Bekele, has paid a visit to the project site of the Mega dam – a project for Egypt is asking for international intervention after a disagreement with Ethiopia in the latest round of talks that took place in Cairo.
EBC cited the minister as saying that the project has shown remarkable progress after projects that were under Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC), a state conglomerate run by the Defense force, were contracted out to five international contractors.
Salini Impregilo, a giant Italian construction company that has been in Ethiopia for over fifty years, has resumed the civil construction aspect of the project which was stopped earlier due to delayed electro-mechanical work which was under METEC’s plate at the past.
Over 96 percent of Saddle dam construction in the left and right side of the mega-dam is completed, and contractors are currently working on finishing work, according to EBC report.
The height of the main dam itself has reached at 145 meters and concrete filling word in the middle part of the dam is underway. So far 8 million metric cube concrete is filled. The entire concrete filling work of the project is said to be about 1.2 million metric cubes. Read more...
