Ikeleng’e gets Zesco national grid by November

ZESCO says the connection of Ikeleng’e to the national electricity grid will be completed by November this year.

North Western Province regional manager, Cephas Lungu, said the US$6.4 million project which started last year with financial support from Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA) was on course.

Mr Lungu said the contractor, Tripple C, had done about 65 percent of the work of constructing a 33 KV line to connect the district to the national grid.

He said that Ikeleng’e was the only district in North-Western Province that remained during the earlier project of the grid extension programme to connect the entire province to the national electricity grid.

He said this in Solwezi when he paid a courtesy call on North-Western Province Permanent Secretary Willies Mangimela at his office.

“In terms of the scope of work, the line comes from Mwinilunga sub-station to Ikeleng’e that is about 70 kilometres then from Ikeleng’e to Jimbe that is about 35 kilometres. So the length of the line from Mwinilunga to Jimbe is about 105 kilometres.

Mr Lungu said there had been remarkable progress on the line and that the contractor had done about 65 kilometres of the line.

The utility company's estimation, he said, was that before the end of this year, the line to Ikeleng’e up to Jimbe would be completed.

"There are 12 kilometres before reaching Ikeleng’e as of last week and by the end of July, they would reach Ikeleng’e and by the end of August going into September, they would reach Jimbe,” Mr Lungu said.

And Mr Mangimela said the connection of the entire province to the national electricity grid would help spur economic activities in the province.

“This connectivity by Zesco has brought a lot of life and improvement to people in the province,” he said.

Mr Mangimela said more investors would be attracted to set up businesses in the region and help create jobs for the local people.