Bassil Says Greek, U.S. Companies Won Deir Ammar Tender
Energy Minister Jebran Bassil revealed on Wednesday that the Greek construction group J&P-Avax and the U.S. industrial group General Electric won the Deir Ammar tender.
“We will start producing 841 megawatts instead of 750,” Bassil said during a press conference.
The minister had expressed optimism earlier in comments published in As Safir after the cabinet approved the results of a tender, which was organized to rehabilitate the Deir Ammar power plant in northern Lebanon.
He reiterated that he is “committed to provide the Lebanese with 24 hours electricity in 2015.”
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“The Lebanese must believe that the electricity crisis isn't complicate... We will restore electricity to the country,” Bassil told reporters.
The cabinet that convened on Tuesday approved the results of a second tender over the rehabilitation of Deir Ammar after the first tender was canceled over disputes with the company that won it.
Lebanon has long suffered from electricity outages because of shortages at its power plants whose maximum capacity is less than 1,500 megawatts but the country’s actual need exceeds 2,300 megawatts.
Concerning the controversy of the new electoral law, Bassil rejected in his comments to As Safir that the adoption of a hybrid draft law that combines the winner-takes-all and proportional systems.
He considered that discussing a hybrid electoral law is a “waste of time” as it will not be approved.
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and al-Mustaqbal movement are mulling the possibility of adopting a hybrid electoral law to replace the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal which was approved by the joint parliamentary committees.
The Orthodox proposal, which considers Lebanon a single electoral district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system, was rejected by President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Jumblat, al-Mustaqbal bloc and the March 14 opposition's Christian independent lawmakers.
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