Tanzania has initiated a $1.33b project to pipe natural gas to its commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, and help relieve chronic power shortages in the city, the president’s office said in a statement according to Reuters.

The 532 km Mtwara-Dar es Salaam pipeline and gas processing plants, largely financed by a Chinese loan, is part of a plan to add about 2,000MW of new gas-fired electricity generating power by 2018 to increase Tanzania’s generating capacity to 10,000MW by 2025.

Most new plants will be gas-fired but Tanzania also wants to use coal reserves and renewable resources such as wind and geothermal.

The pipeline will have a capacity of 784 mcf/d of gas, to be used for the production of 3,900MW of electricity. On completion, the project will allow the Mnazi Bay Concession partners and others to transport natural gas to large-scale electricity producers, and other industrial users and major population centres in Tanzania, Pipelines International reported.

Specifically, Tanzanian Finance Minister Dr William Mgimwa said that the Government will implement the construction of the pipeline using a $1.2b loan from the Export-Import Bank of China, which will be managed by the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation.