Tanzania on Tuesday signed a 31.5-million-U.S.-dollar grant agreement with the French Development Agency (AFD) for financing the implementation of the Tanzania-Zambia power interconnection project.

The agreement was signed in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam between the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Doto James and the French Ambassador to Tanzania, Frederic Clavier.

The signing of the agreement was witnessed by the AFD Country Director for Tanzania, Stephanie Mouen Essombe and Cedric Merel, the Head of Cooperation at the Delegation of the European Union in Tanzania.

Speaking after the signing of the agreement, James said the project was to establish cross-border power transmission between the southern African power pool and the East African power pool to enable regional power trade in order to establish a regional power market.

James said the project involved construction of 400 Kilo Volts electricity transmission lines and associated substations along the Iringa-Kisada-Mbeya-Tunduma-Sumbawanga corridor.ÿ