Chipata geared for heavy duty industries
EASTERN Province permanent secretary Chanda Kasolo says Chipata now has the capacity to accommodate heavy duty industries under a new planned operation aimed at diversifying the economy.
And Mr. Kasolo says now that cholera had subsided, the city would be able to continue with business as usual.
Speaking on the sidelines of an “Emergency Provincial Epidemic Preparedness Prevention and Control and Management meeting” on Tuesday, Mr Kasolo said the city had developed a comprehensive blue print to direct industrialisation of Chipata.
According to the blue print, Chipata would able to translate its potential from giant manufacturing, food processing and small scale businesses under an industrial cluster model into revenue.
“There is a collection of companies interested in establishing a thermal power plant that will be generating over 300 Megawatts of electricity. And this will set tone for industrialisation of Chipata,” Mr. Kasolo told Daily Nation.
He said “This thermal power plant will be constructed at a cost of US $900 million. Construction is expected to last two years and over 500 jobs will be created and an additional thousands jobs with be availed thereafter.”
An addition power to drive the plant would be produced using heavy oil or gas on a180 hectares of land.
The thermal power plant would operate alternatively with a complimentary solar power plant and would be situated some 14km off Umodzi Highway, south of Chipata.
Meanwhile, Mr Kasolo attributed the success in the fight against cholera to law abiding residents in his province.
Reports by Ministry of Health states that only three people died of Cholera in Chipata.
“We had reports of cholera, but we had a minimal record of deaths. And these recorded deaths were of people from outside our city.
“But the most important thing is we were able to work together towards successful elimination of the epidemic,” Mr. Kasolo said.