First Tunisian private sector power link established

The French Alestom engineering group won a contract to establish an electric station with a strength of 471 million megawatts near the Tunisian capital in the first private project for generating electricity in Tunis.

A press statement released by the Tunisian informative bureau said the value of the contract amounts to 170 million euros, where Alestom will play the role of the major contractor for building the facility, in addition to importing the contract systems. It is expected that the station will enter service in 2001, alleviating pressure of some 20 to 25% of Tunisian electric reserves.

Alestom obtained the contract after a competition with a group of German and American companies, whose names the statement did not mention.