Nachtigal Project: 12 companies in the starting blocks

Only 12 companies have been pre-qualified among the other companies and groups of companies that expressed interest on the implementation of the hydroelectric Nachtigal project upstream which was published on April 30.

This selection was conducted by the consortium of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Electricité de France (EDF), the State of Cameroon and Rio Tinto Alcan (RTA). The companies were selected based on various lots (four in total) of the project with a capacity of 420 MW, located on the Sanaga River, 65 km from Yaoundé.

General earthworks

The first batch of work to be done in the hydroelectric development Nachtigal project upstream concerning general earthworks, civil engineering and equipment works and upstream of the supply channel. For this work, two groups of companies were pre-qualified. They are Razel BEC (Attorney-France) / Sogea Satom (France) / Vinci Construction Grands Projets (France). The main competitor for the consortium has been NGE Contracting (Mandataire- France) / VTS (Morocco).

Downstream works

The choice of the company to achieve the second batch of the project concerning civil engineering works downstream of the penstock and hydro-mechanical equipment of the downstream supply systems will be among the three selected in the pre-qualification. In the list is the Besix group (Belgium-Agent), Six International (Cameroon), Tractebel Engineering (France); Vinci Construction large consortium projects, Razel BEC / Sogea Satom and NGE Contracting / VTS.

Central Facilities

There were four selected companies competing for the third batch. As with the previous, the choice was more focused on groups of companies: Andritz Hydro GmbH (Germany-agent) / Andritz Hydro GmbH (Austria); Toshiba Corporation (Japan-Agent) / Clemessy SA (France); Alstom Hydro France (France) and Voith Hydro GmbH and Co. KG (Germany attorney) / Cegelec SAS (France).

Electric discharge lines

This is the only lot for which groups of companies were not privileged. Three companies were pre-qualified. These are Cofely INEO GDF Suez (France), Bouygues Energies services (France) and Elecnor (Spain).

This new step taken in the business recruitment virtually comes two years after the signing of the Convention relating to the project, November 8, 2013, in Yaounde between the government and the various financial partners. Qualified companies will be selected to carry out the various works.

The project includes a concrete main dam, a power canal that will power a hydroelectric boasts seven groups of 60 MW each station, post production and open a line of power transmission, a hydro-electric and micro power-related structures like roads, city, buildings, networks, etc.

The total project cost is estimated at FCFA 400 billion. According to the information available on the website of the project, the start of construction is scheduled for 2016. The operational implementation of the seven groups will be staggered between 2020 and 2021.

According to the same source, census operations of the property affected by the current project in the Lékié Division since September 22 will be completed at the end of October.