GRIDCo gives 3-month ultimatum to encroachers to evacuate transmission lines passage
The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has given a three-month ultimatum to encroachers on its transmission lines passage to evacuate to make way for the company’s expansion projects.
According to GRIDCo, some individuals have turned the company’s transmission lines passage into garages, shops and lorry parks, while others are engaging in other unauthorised activities in the spaces and on the lands.
The transmission lines passage are spaces or lands created for the GRIDCo transmission lines due to some associated dangers.
Areas affected
The Head of Public Relations of GRIDCo, Mr Albert K. Quainoo, announced this at a news conference to brief journalists on the construction of a 400 megawatts (MW) bulk supply point by the company in the central business district of Accra.
He explained that the decongestive exercise was to enable the company to upgrade its 161kv Tema–Achimota-Mallam transmission lines and also construct the substation.
He said encroachers, comprising companies and individuals in areas such as Dzorwulu, Kotobabi, Avenor, Industrial Area and Bubuashie, who failed to relocate would have their vehicles towed, and their structures and shops demolished, to enable the contractors to work on the projects.
Compensation
Touching on compensation, Mr Quainoo said GRIDCo paid compensation for the passage as far back as 1996, therefore, anyone on its land now had encroached on it.
On the projects, he indicated that the two were estimated at $45 million and that they were being funded by the Japan International Co-opertion Agency (JICA).
He said work was expected to begin in the first quarter of 2015 and would take four years to complete.
High demand for power
Mr Quainoo explained that it had become necessary for the central business district to have its Bulk Supply Point because the demand for power in the area was higher than the 10 per cent annual demand by the whole nation.
“About 30 per cent of the total 730MW of power demand for the Greater Accra Region is consumed in the central business district as a result of increasing modernisation, increasing commercial and industrial activities and the new trend in reconstruction of single-storey buildings into high-rise facilities,” Mr Quainoo stated.
Additionally, he said the load in the area had changed considerably with increased penetration of reactive power consuming loads such as air conditioners, more lighting and the use of sophisticated gadgets.
Therefore, he said the central business district area bulk supply point would complement the three existing ones at Achimota, Mallam and Adiringano to give consumers reliable and quality of power supply.
“Any delay in the implementation of the projects will add to the cost and impact on power delivery in the capital and its environs,” Mr Quainoo stressed.
