December 5, 2007

A high-level delegation from the electricity ministry headed for the Chinese capital Beijing to sign a contract with a Chinese company to set up the Kut thermal power station in Wassit province, the electricity ministry said on Tuesday.

"The production capacity of the $940-million new plant will reach 1,320 megawatt. The construction works will end in three and a half years by the government's Shanghai company," the media spokesman for the ministry said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

"The delegation was authorized to sign the contract," he also said, noting that the contract will be signed after being approved by the cabinet and the economic committee.

"The company which will implement this project had accomplished the project's designing works in 2001 as well as some civilian works, but it left the country because of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003," he noted.

"The project if completed will be one of the big power stations in Iraq and will cover Wassit province's electricity needs as well as the nearby provinces," the spokesman said.

He said that Electricity Minister Karim Wahid Hassan had met with the Chinese ambassador to Iraq last May on the project.

Source: Voices of Iraq