Botswana has picked India’s Jindal Steel & Power Ltd as the preferred bidder in a tender to build a 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant, a notice from its energy ministry showed on Monday.
It is the only fossil fuel-based power plant the Southern African country plans to procure in the next 20 years.
Four companies were initially short-listed for the contract but one pulled out leaving Jindal, African Energy Resources and Minergy in a three-way race.
Botswana has over 200 billion tonnes of coal resources and despite recent pressure on coal due to climate change, the diamond-dependent country is pressing ahead with monetising its coal for economic development.
