The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) says it has begun the construction of a new 15 kilometres 33 Kilo Volt (KV)/line in Osun.
The line would run from Ile-Ife Transmission Substation to Garage-Olode town, in Ife South LGA of the state.
Head, Communication & Public Relations, NDPHC, Mrs Olufunke Nwankwo, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
Nwankwo said the project when completed would restore power supply to the area which had been without electricity supply for over 10 years.
Speaking at the inauguration of the project, Mr IfeOluwa Oyedele the Executive Director, Networks, NDPHC, said the distribution intervention project also included the rehabilitation of the 15km 33kV Ifetedo/Garage-Olode power line.
Oyedele said the project would see the dualisation of 3km of 33KVA line from Mayfair roundabout to Modakeke, adding that eight 300 KVA and eight 500KVA distribution transformers would be supplied and installed in the community.
He described the inauguration of the project as historic as it marked the commencement of the construction of a project conceived and implemented to improve lives and economic activities in Garage-Olode town.
Oyedele commended the Osun Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, for pushing hard for the project.
“Following the intervention of the Osun governor, NDPHC, in keeping with our mandate to improve electricity infrastructure in the country visited Garage-Olode community for location inspection.
“We discovered that the community electricity supply is being fed from old Akure Transmission Substation which has been dilapidated for a very long time.
“In scoping this project, we engaged with Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC).
“We were assured that the intervention of NDPHC in the improvement of electricity infrastructure in this community will align with their proposed infrastructure upgrade in the community and the entire State.
“With this intervention, there will be great improvement in the condition of living of the people, socio-economic activities, commerce and industry and general wellbeing in Garage-Olode Community,” he said.
Oyedele, however, said that in commencing the project, the people should be grateful to a thoughtful and purposeful leader President Muhammadu Buhari and supported by Gov. Oyetola.
Oyetola while inaugurating the project commended the people of the area for their patience in the past ten years without electricity supply.
“For me, today is a day of joy as history is being made. I am elated that we have now brought to an end the tortuous journey that left our people, in darkness for over ten years,” he said.
Oyetola also thanked NDPHC for executing the project, saying power supply would be restored to Ife South West Local Council Development Authority (LCDA), thus ending the unpalatable decade of power outage.
He said that the efforts would also help to power towns and villages such as Iyanfoworogi, Aye Coker, Aye-Oba, Wanikin Eleja, Egbejoda, Idi Obi and Ali Ahanran in this first phase and when completed.
“The project will cover the entire Ife South Local Government and the LCDA.
“The project occupied a strategic place in my administration’s agenda to empower the benefiting communities to contribute substantially to the development of the state,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Mr Amidu Raheem, Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy, expressed gratitude to the governor for his intervention.
According to him, the project would go a long way in restoring the lost glory of the communities in terms of socio-economic and commercial activities in the affected areas.
In his remarks, Benjamin Ogundipe, member, Osun State House of Assembly representing Ife-South State Constituency described the project as one that would bring succor to his people.
Earlier in their separate remarks, the Olubosin of Ifetedo, Oba Akinola Akinrera and the Olu of Olode, Oba David Omisore, had expressed their profound gratitude to the governor for taking their subjects out of protracted darkness.
According to them, lack of power supply had paralysed the socio-economic activities of the areas in the last ten years.
