Grand Bassa County – TRANSCO CLSG has started paying over 150 rural Liberians whose lands, and properties have been affected by the construction of transmission line to serve the Mano River Union region.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway – [email protected]
In continuation of the construction of the 1,303km transmission line which is intended to serve Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, TRANSCO CLSG in collaboration with the government of Liberia, on Monday, March 5, 2018 started the payment of resettlement package to affected residents in Grand Bassa County.
Speaking at the launching ceremony for the payment of compensations for the CLSG project, TRANSCO CLSG General Manager, Mohamed Sheriff, said more than 300 households would be affected by the construction of the transmission line and substation.
Mr. Sheriff disclosed that in 2012, a treaty was signed by the four beneficiary countries to establish TRANSCO with the task of managing the project implementation as well as operating and maintaining the transmission line.
He noted that the project is multi-million dollar project being supported by its donors.
The project is a multinational investment by the World Bank, European Investment Bank, German Development Bank and African Development Bank.
The four beneficiary countries, according to Sheriff, provided their contributions for the payment of the resettlement for affected citizens.
“Through their collective efforts to accelerate the physical implementation of the CLSG project, TRANSCO CLSG has begun the compensation process to resettle all project affected people (PAPs) that are within the corridors of the transmission line and substations in the four countries.
“We are gathered here today to officially launch the compensation process in Liberia and compensate about 150 persons affected by the project along 40 km of the line corridor,” said Sheriff.
He recalled that recently, the company paid compensation for persons affected by the project in Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea.
“For the specific case of Liberia, the CLSG project involves the construction of approximately 530km of 225kV power line through seven counties including, Nimba, Bong, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Montserrado, Bomi and Grand Cape Mount Counties,” he disclosed.
The technical components of the CLSG interconnection line includes overhead 225 kV Transmission Line of 225 kV with a length of 1303 km; Lattice Steel Towers designed for 2 Circuits with a capacity of 486MW/Single Circuit equipped initially with a capacity of 243MW.
Sheriff further said one of the shield wires of the line will include an Optical Wire (OPGW); 11 new substations of 225 kV including four in Liberia, five in Sierra Leone and two in Guinea.
“We are working on finalizing an agreement for a fifth substation to be constructed in Botota, Bong County, extension of an existing substation in Côte d’Ivoire; Static Systems of reactive power Compensation (SVC) in five substations including four in the CLSG system and one in Cote d’Ivoire,” he said.
He informed the beneficiaries that CLSG project has a rural electrification component; each village along the transmission line stands to benefit from the electricity through the shield wire system that will be deployed, adding that, the West African Power Pool (WAPP) power interconnection project will help interconnect the four countries into the 225kilo volt regional energy market in West Africa and also increase electricity supply in the region.
Mr. Sheriff said the project would also be implemented by TRANSCO in Liberia. It is expected to be completed in 2019 with the hope of providing residents of the four countries improvements in power supply in the short-term
Also speaking, Minister of Mines and Energy, Gesier E. Murray expressed gratitude to TRANSCO CLSG management for the initiative.
He urged beneficiaries to make good use of the package provided them and help secure edifices that would be constructed by the project.
Minister Murray assured that government was ready and committed to support the project because according to him, improvement in the energy sector is paramount for sustainable development.
“We will be monitoring the implementation of this project. We will be asking for progress report to make sure that the project is completed within the stipulated timeframe,” he said.
A representative, on behalf the beneficiaries, thanked TRANSCO CLSG and the government for the smooth relationship.