The Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, disclosed that the retooling and repair work at the Komenda Sugar Factory (KSF) are 98 per cent complete. He added that the production test run would be conducted by the end of next month.
The minister was responding to a question on the floor of Parliament put to him by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bole-Bamboi, Yusif Sulemana, on the state of the factory.
Mr Kyerematen said the works included the installation of a new pipeline to and from the plant to the molasses tank, and refractories. There is also lagging work in the boiler furnace and chimneys, which is fully completed.
Another was the completion of the vacuum and water testing facility at the boiler house, which had started working, with steam pressure testing ongoing for the turbine to generate three megawatts (MW) of electricity, the minister added.
Mr Kyerematen further said four acres of nursery land had been prepared for cultivation to support sugarcane development in the catchment area.
He said there were plans to expand the land to 500 acres after the commencement of operations.
In addition to the above, the Minister said, the Board of the Company was finalising negotiations with traditional authorities to secure about 20,000 acres of land required for plantation development at the Sekyere Obuasi and Sekyere Hemang areas in the Central Region.