Zesco Limited managing director, Rodnie Sisala, in an interview said the power utility firm would brief the public on the progress concerning extension works for Kariba North Bank before the contractors move on site.
Mr Sisala said a delegation from Sino-hydro of China was recently in the country to finalise the project implementation with Zesco management.
He said Zesco and Sino-hydro agreed on mobilisation of the contractors and purchase of various equipment required for the power plant.
The two agreed to finalise the design for extension work of the plant this month.
Mr Sisala said completion of the 360 MW project would take four years while the first unit of the plant would be brought online before the projected time framework.
Last year, Zesco and Sino-hydro signed a contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of the Kariba North Bank extension hydro-project at a cost of US$ 243 million.
The cost are now estimated at about US$400 million.
He explained that 85 per cent of the total cost would be provided by China Export Import Bank (China EXIM Bank) while the balance would be provided by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
Mr Sisala said the project was an extension to the already existing Kariba North Bank Power Station.
The extension involves installing a 360 MW capacity plant underground adjacent to the existing machinery at Kariba North Bank.
He said Kariba North Bank had the capacity of 600 MW and Zesco management was upgrading its capacity to 720 MW under the power rehabilitation programme.
He said once extension work for Kariba North was completed in four years time, the power plant would have a capacity of 1080MW.
Kariba North Bank has four generating plants and the plan is to bring in additional two plants, which would be the same as Kafue Gorge Power Plant, he said.
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