Firms shortlisted for controversial dam project

The government of Uganda has short-listed five bidders for the construction of the controversial Bujagali Hydroelectric Dam project near the source of the Nile river. An assessment committee was expected to announce the winning tender by the end of the year, government sources said. Ugandan Minister of State for Energy Daudi Migereko told IRIN on Friday: "The committee has been running through the submissions carefully. They will inform us of their verdict and we hope to have the project up and running in around nine months." The Bujagali project first got the go-ahead at the end of 2001, when the World Bank announced its approval of financial assistance totalling up to US $225 million for the dam. But the project collapsed in October 2003 when AES Corporation, the energy company contracted to construct the dam, pulled out, citing "lowered returns for AES in the ongoing project balanced against increased risk". The project was thereafter marred by allegations of corruption and objections from environmental groups. The groups complained that the project would create an environmentally damaging reservoir and upset the flow of the Nile. Uganda, with a population of 25 million, is short of electricity. Less than 5 percent of Ugandans have access to the national power grid. AES said last year that the 200-megawatt hydropower station would double capacity.