Myanmar News Updated
Highlight Myanmar News
Government and Six Companies Ink Deal to Extend Power Grid
07/05/2019
AUTHOR: ZIN THU TUN
The Ministry of Electricity and Energy and six tender winning companies signed a contract on April 30th to build new power grids and transformers which will service 590 villages in the Yangon Region, Mandalay Region, Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Rakhine State, Shant State (North), Mon State and Karen State.
“We concluded the tender process to build power grids and transformers for the villages in the first phase of NEP in line with the procedures from the World Bank,” said U Win Khaing, Union Minister of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy.
This is the first phase of the National Electrification Plan (NEP) to provide power to over 5,000 villages that are located within two miles from the existing power grids. All the necessary equipment such as transformers, poles, lines and others have arrived in the country.
The project was launched in January 2019 and is expected to be finished by June 2020. The target is to provide power to 626,757 households which will increase the country’s electrification rate by 5.6 percent.
For the second phase of the NEP, the government is targeting to provide power to the villages within five miles from the current power grids by September 2021.
The government is trying to improve the electrification rate to 50 percent by the end of this year, 55 percent by 2021, 75 percent by 2026 and 100 percent by 2030, according to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy.
