Indian firm 'Indure' wins Hwange tender

INDIAN firm Indure (Private) Limited has won a tender to rehabilitate and upgrade the ash plant at the Hwange Thermal Power Station at cost of about US$11 million. The exercise is being financed by the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Management Unit, a group of donors established to help Zimbabwe's infrastructure recovery.

It is administered by the African Development Bank. Indure won the contract ahead of Macawber Beekay of India and Hamon J&C Engineering of South Africa.

Macawber's bid price was US$15,1 million while Hamon pegged its bid at US$19,4 million, the AfDB said in a statement. The project is expected to take eight months.

"The ash plant upgrade and rehabilitation scope comprises the design, supply, demolition, construction (and) commissioning (of the) ash plant for Stage 1 and Stage 2 power plant at Hwange Thermal Power Station," said AfDB.

"The station was built in two stages. The first four units were commissioned between 1983 and 1986 and the other two units were between 1986 and 1987.

The fund was established in 2010 and the contributors to the fund include Australia, Den­mark, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United King­dom while the AfDB manages it on behalf of the donors. Donors' commitments to the Zim-Fund in various currencies reached US$80,5 million in 2011.

Last week, the Zimbabwe Power Company said it was seeking at least US$500 million to extend the life- span of Hwange Power Station's aged plant by at least 25 years.

In a power generation status update released last Thursday, the company said it had started working towards the resuscitation of Stages 1 and 2 units at the plant.

Hwange is producing about 700 megawatts of power but it has installed capacity of 920MW.
A recent study by the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority showed that Zimbabwe's electricity generation was expected to improve in 2017 courtesy of increased capacity expected after the completion of upgrade expansion at the country's power stations.