$6.5m OPEC funding for Perseverance housing project |18 September 2006

The loan agreement was signed at the OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) Fund Headquarters in Vienna on September 7, 2006 by Lekha Nair, principal secretary in the Ministry of Finance, and H.E Jamal Nasser Lootah, chairman of the Government Board of OPEC Fund.

A communique from the Ministry of Finance says that the loan will be mainly used to finance all electricity infrastructure, comprising the provision of a substation at Zone 15 equipped with power transformers and circuit breakers and the installation of transmission lines of 33KV and 11KV between Victoria A Station and Perseverance Island.

Also included is water supply and sewerage, comprising the extension of the existing sewer through the laying of a 3-kilometre pipeline which will connect to the sewerage system of Victoria, construction of a pumping station and provision of household connections.

The loan will also take into account road infrastructure, comprising the construction of a 2.7-kilometre dual carriage highway from Mahe to Zone 15 and access roads linking the dual carriage highway to the Southern corner of Zone 15.

The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in 2010.

As for the Perseverance housing estate, it will provide accommodation to over 2,000 families in total.

This is the third loan Seychelles has benefited from under the OPEC Fund, the first being that for the Plaisance Secondary School back in 1988 and later the Baie Ste Anne Praslin Primary School which is expected to be completed later this year.