THE China Exim Bank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) are next month expected to release US$430 million for the Kariba North Bank Extension Project (KNBEP) being undertaken by Sinohydro Corporation.

The Chinese Bank will finance 85 per cent of the project amounting to US$315 million of engineering, procurement and construction while DBSA will finance the balance of 15 per cent of US$115 million.

Zesco Kariba North Bank Extension Power Corporation (KNBEPC) project director Aaron Nyirenda said the company currently funded construction works from its own resources and arrangements for two banks to release US$430 million were finalised.

Mr Nyirenda said works on KNBEP involved development of 2 X 180 Mega Watts (MW) machines that would produce capacity of 360 MW and expected to be completed in November 2012.

The scope of works included detailed engineering design, manufacturing, supplying, installation and commissioning.

Mr Nyirenda said on Tuesday that once completed, those two new machines in addition to the four existing ones would bring the total capacity of power supply by the station to 1080 MW.

He was speaking when Information and Broadcasting Services Deputy Minister Angela Cifire toured KNBEP to commemorate the Southern African Development Community (SADC) integration day that falls every year on August 17.

SADC and the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) through the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) identified some short and medium priority hydro projects in the region and in Zambia they were KNBE, Itezhi-Tezhi and Kafue Gorge.

"Through extension of these projects, we shall increase generation capacity thereby mitigating the power shortage and effectively reduce cost of importing peaking hour," he said

He said there would be positive financial returns from the peaking hours and also providing reliable power supplies with more than 500 jobs created for citizens during construction period.

Zesco director generation and transmission Masiye Mwale said rehabilitation of the fourth machine gutted with fire in 2009 progressed well and once installed by October 2011 power capacity would increase to 720 MW from current generation of 600 MW.

"We are working hard to ensure the power generation capacity is improved because we also want to ensure all Government programmes are disbursed so that we can increase our economic growth," he said.

And Ms Cifire said she was impressed with the huge power infrastructure being installed at Kariba and assured Zesco the Government would ensure financing of the project.

She said citizens had complained for a long time on current loadshedding by Zesco in most parts of the country and the Government was certain with installation of such vast infrastructure power capacity would improve.

"As Government, our goal is to see that such development is completed and I am very impressed with this kind of power infrastructure. We shall ensure resources are made available to see its completion," she said

Ms Cifire who also toured Chirundu one-stop border post, called for speedy computerisation of facilities including that of Zimbabwean side to easy operations.

But Zimbabwean border post station manager William Gadziwani said he faced a challenge as most works was done manually and the procedures set by project consultants could not tally with developing countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) Chirundu border assistant commissioner customs Arnold Nkoma complained of slow operations between the two borders as lack of computerised systems on Zimbabwean side delayed transactions.