Construction major Vinci has entered into a contract with the Reservoirs and Grand Barrages Sector for the design build of the Assiut dam in Egypt. RGBS is part of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation.

The new Assiut dam located on the Nile, some 250 kilometers to the north of Luxor will replace an existing dam built early last century 400 meters further upstream.

The EUR 266 million works will be carried out by a consortium composed in equal parts of Vinci Construction Grands Projects as the leader, Arab Contractors and Orascom.

This project aims to regulate the flow of the Nile, for irrigation purposes and for the production of electricity of capacity 32 MW that is produced by four 8 MW turbines. The works will start on May 2nd 2012 and is expected to take atleast 5 years for completion.

(Sourced from Hydro.energy-business-review)