Recently, China Electric Power Construction Municipal Construction Group signed contracts under the STECOL brand for the Tenguru Merelani road upgrade project in the Arusha region of Tanzania and the construction of safety and water control facilities in the Shire River Valley of Malawi. Two projects are located on the tracks of transportation infrastructure and water control respectively, and STECOL has added new orders to its rolling operations in East Africa.

27 kilometer road upgrade

The Tenguru to Merarani Road Upgrade Project is located in the Arusha region of Tanzania. The core construction content is to transform 27.6 kilometers of original dirt and gravel roads into two-way two lane standard asphalt pavement, and to build new road ancillary facilities. The positioning of this road is not an ordinary rural road. Merelani is the core mining area of Tanzania's Tanzanite mine, located about 70 kilometers south of Arusha, and is the only sizable Tanzanite deposit in the world. The direct benefit of road upgrading is to reduce the transportation costs of materials between the mining area and the city of Arusha, supporting the mining, tourism, and commercial industries. At the same time, Tanzania will jointly host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations with Kenya and Uganda, with Arusha being one of the host cities. The Tanzanian government has publicly included the upgrade of this road in the list of supporting transportation guarantees for the Africa Cup, and the project has strong schedule requirements.

Water Control in the Shire River Valley

The Malawi Shire Valley Safety and Water Control Facility Construction Project is located in the Chikuwa region of southern Malawi, in the same area as STECOL's ongoing Shire Valley renovation project and Shire Valley irrigation secondary channel construction project. The contracted project focuses on control and safety, including flow regulation facilities, safety flood discharge facilities, energy dissipation facilities, gates and supporting electromechanical equipment along the main canals MC1 and MC2, as well as drainage systems and safety fences. This is not about building new irrigation channels, but rather strengthening the water flow regulation and safety protection capabilities of existing and under construction irrigation systems. STECOL has previously implemented an irrigation secondary channel project supported by the World Bank in the region. The water intake project was mainly completed in September 2026, with an overall progress of over 85%. The newly signed safety control project is an extension of the existing project group. Keywords: infrastructure news and information, international, water conservancy, highways

Rolling operation of project groups

When STECOL simultaneously signed the 27.6-kilometer asphalt road project in Tanzania and the Shire River Valley water control project in Malawi on November 2, 2026, the layout of China Electric Power Construction Corporation's municipal project in East Africa was further consolidated from a single point project into a regional project group. Currently, only the signing of business contracts has been completed, and construction has not yet begun. Equipment procurement and subcontracting bidding have not been initiated. As the EPC general contractor, STECOL has not yet disclosed the details of equipment selection and supplier access to the public. The supporting requirements will be gradually released with the design of drawings and construction nodes. The equipment windows of the Tanzania road project are concentrated in the earthwork, pavement, and drainage links, and the procurement entity is STECOL rather than the Tanzanian government; The core categories of Malawi water control projects are gates, hoists, and electromechanical equipment, with a higher technical threshold than general building materials. STECOL East Africa is headquartered in Kenya and manages over 60 ongoing projects across multiple countries in East Africa through a regional management framework. For supporting enterprises that already have local service capabilities or product certifications in East Africa, the reuse efficiency is relatively high after entering their supplier system.Editor/Gao Xue