Dayo Johnson
19 March 2012, Sweetcrude, PORT HARCOURT – Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, says his administration was committed to actualising its promise of providing 24 hours uninterrupted power supply in Port Harcourt and the entire state by December this year.
Governor Amaechi, who briefed newsmen at Government House, Port Harcourt, said the state will “generate enough capacity, have a robust transmission infrastructure that will take the power to the people, their neighourhood and have a solid distribution infrastructure that will take it to their routes, and so we are addressing these three things, power generation, transmission and distribution.”
Represented by the Commissioner for Power, Mr Augustine Nwokocha, Amaechi said N30 billion had been set aside to ensure that the administration meets this target.
He said: “Unlike the previous system where they were all given to one person, here we have a total of 10 outfits doing different things to ensure that we deliver on time.
“What we have done differently is that we have divided this work into smaller units that are deliverable, faster and better. We have also focused on getting the quality of men that can deliver this work and deliver them well.
“We have got Saipan Nigeria Limited to build a power substation. We have Weltech doing a medium voltage substation. We have selected people in that category, people who we believe can deliver based on their track record.
According to him, “we are currently pursing the transmission aspect of our power project.” He added that administration had formed a committee of technocrats to deliver power to Rivers people, saying a reliable vendor had been found for power distribution in the state.
“We have identified a very veritable vendor with very reliable technology in distribution and transmission, Sunder Electrical of France and we have entered into a contract with them to supply us all the materials that are required to stabilize power supply in the city of Port Harcourt and its environs,” he said.
