Currently, just about a third of all the villages in Southern Shan State have access to electricity, according to MOEE statistics.

The project, which will see some 32,674 households receiving power, will be funded by a €23.89 million loan from Germany’s Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) Bank as well as a €6.54 million grant by the Eurozone.

The interest rate on the KfW loan is expected to be low, at just 0.75 percent, said U Tin Aung, chief engineer at Myanma Electricity Power Enterprise (MEPE). MEPE will be involved in helping to implement the project. The loan agreement will be signed this week.

Subsequently, international tenders will be invited for the purchase of 33kv and66kv transmission lines as well as substation equipment, while local tenders will be invited for transformers and posts.

The project is part of the government’s National Energy Master Plan to achieve full electrification by 2030. It will be implemented with the help of the World Bank, Asia Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency.

No reason was given for choosing Southern Shan State, which is just one among the many areas in Myanmar which does not enjoy regular access to electricity. “It is up to the organisations extending the loans. I don’t know the exact reason for their choice of Southern Shan State,” said U Tin Aung.

In Southern Shan State, 30 out of 35 cities have access to electricity while the remaining five cities have alternatives to generating electricity, according to MOEE statistics. Out of the 4,952 villages, 990 receive electricity from the national grid, while another 477 villages receive power from other sources.

In Myanmar, 40 pc, or 4.2 million out of a total 10.8 million households receive electricity from the national grid system, Deputy Permanent Secretary U Htay Aung of the MOEE said.

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