Power to the People of Chad

Van der Vlist recently successfully arranged the shipment of electricity power cables from Europe to Africa. Photographs – Van der Vlist.

Date 3 December 2018

Client Switchgear Company urgently required 16 reels of transmission cables to be delivered to Chad. The country’s power utility, National Electricity Company (SNE), is rehabilitating generation assets, for which the cables are required to help improve supply. Switchgear Company has achieved a good position in this market, thanks to projects supported by Flanders investment and trade.

Van der Vlist contracted an air charter broker to expedite the cables from Paris-Vatry airport direct to N’djamena.  With time of the essence and limited cost-effective air charter options available. Van der Vlist, in close cooperation with their air charter broker, secured space on board Astral Aviation’s Boeing 747-400 freighter. To enable the plane to depart on schedule, time management was of great importance during the entire project. Van der Vlist aligned all involved parties and customs clearance and freight facilitation operations were arranged. The shipment arrived in Paris directly from Greece, transported on four separate vehicles.

The 16 reels weighed five tons each and collectively amounted to around 16 km of cable. Under the watchful eye of the plane’s loadmasters at Paris-Vatry, the reels were carefully loaded on to the dedicated charter aircraft before taking off for N’Djamena International Airport. The loading operations at Paris-Vatry took place under the supervision of a Van der Vlist project manager.

Van der Vlist looks back on a smoothly executed project and great cooperation from all parties involved.

Source Van der Vlist