The whole project including the factory, plantations, housing and
infrastructure will cover 64,000ht. Out of that area, 14ht will be
allotted for residential houses for the projected 45,000 workers to
be deployed in the Project while the rest will be for sugar cane
plantations.
Tendaho factory
was recently established as a state company in its own right, taking
responsibility from the Ethiopian Sugar Industry Support Center (ESISC),
following a decision by the Council of Ministers six months ago.
The Tendaho
project was launched under the joint auspices of the Ministry of
Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Water Resources at the
beginning of 2005, after the feasibility study was conducted by
Indian firm, J.P. Mukherjee, hired by ESISC.
The Ministry of
Water Resources has given the basic works of the irrigation canal
and soil testing to two state owned companies, Water Works
Construction Enterprise and Water Works Design and Supervision
Enterprise. The sugar cane plantation work will be done by the Trade
and Industry ministry.
With the
factory being built in Asaita, the former Afar capital, a dam is to
be constructed in Dubti. It will be 53m wide, 112m long, and hold
1.86 billion tonnes of water.
“As the project
will mainly need the amount secured in dollars, we are issuing an
international tender this week,” said Belete Alemayehu, general
manager of Tendaho.
The Sugar
Development Fund, a funding agency uniting the three operating
state-owned sugar fatories, will give the factory 2.08 billion Br in
equity to begin seeding for the project.
From the total
budget set aside for the project, close to two billion Birr will be
for dam and irrigation construction and 6.7 billion Br will go to
the construction of the factory.
According to
information from ESISC, the three factories now operational - Wonji
Shoa, Fincha and Metehara - produce 2.8 million quintals per year.
This is short of the growing demand that is estimated to be above
three million quintals.
Tendaho is
expected to become fully operational in 2008 and is projected to
produce 772,200tn of sugar, 245,000tn of molasses and 145 million
litres of ethanol annually at full capacity.
