Electricity ministry urges speeding up diesel-powered station in Samarra

SALAH AL-DIN / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Electricity Minister Kareem Waheed gave instructions on Friday to accelerate the first stage of the diesel-powered station in the city of Samarra, a ministry spokesman said. “Waheed visited Salah al-Din province on Friday to inspect work progress on the hydroelectric station and the Samarra diesel station, whose first stage is hopefully to be finalized next April,” Aziz Sultan al-Shimari told IraqiNews.com. The minister asked a Polish company that carries out the project to increase working hours to speed up building the station, whose contract was signed in 2004 and delayed due to deteriorating security conditions that caused the killing of 60 workers on the station, the spokesman added. “Work on the station is divided over four stages to finalize 20 generating units with 17 megawatt capacity each,” said Shimari, noting the target date to finish the project is 2009. AmR (P) 1