The Tanzanian Deputy Minister for Energy, Subira Mgalu, on Sunday said arrangement had been concluded to connect five regions to natural gas, a move aimed at reducing over-reliance on erratic electricity.
The regions include Arusha, Dodoma, Tanga, Kilimanjaro and Morogoro.
Mgalu reiterated that the intention of the Tanzanian Government was to ensure that all regions were connected to natural gas for domestic and industrial use.
He said the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) had already embarked on a grand project to provide infrastructure for connecting natural gas for domestic and industrial use in Dar es Salaam, Coast, Lindi and Mtwara regions.
“Under the TPDC project, more than 50 industries have already been connected to natural gas, almost all industries in the country will be connected to natural gas by 2046,“Mgalu said.
In May 2018, he told parliament that the government was implementing a project to connect key industries in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam with natural gas as source of energy, thereby, reducing dependence on erratic electricity.
“The plan is to reduce dependence of electricity as the only source of power for production by the industries,” he said.
Earlier, the Tanzanian President John Magufuli, promised to turn the country into a middle income industrial economy by 2025.
Tanzania is on the process of implementing a mega hydropower at Stiegler’s Gorge along the Rufiji River in the Selous Game Reserve that will produce 2,100 megawatts.
Tanzania, with a population of approximately 55 million, has just 1,500MW of installed grid capacity.
