OTIRA TUNNEL.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1920, Page 5

OTIRA TUNNEL.

ELECTRIFYING THE LINE, i£ 3,000,000 TENDER ACCEPTED. il sM«rapli.—-Press Association, Wellington, Last Night. Officers of the Public" Works Department to-day met Sir Arnold Gridey, a representative of the English Electric Co. Ltd., in a discussion of details of the tenders for the electrification of the Ofcira tunnel.

The .English company's tender Is practically accepted for a sum in the vicinity of £3,000,000. The Government also received a tender for a somewhat similar amount from the National Electrical Engineering Company to supply the equipment required for the work. The Public Works" 1 Department Tenders Board, in accepting the tenders, had to take into account a number of factors apart from the price, and the chief of these was the plant proposed, the possible power developed, arid the time required for installation. The contract' includes electric equipment of a coal-fired generating station of 4000-h.p. capacity at Otira; the supply of sis electric locomotives; the electrification of the track betweeh the present steam terniind at Otira and Arthur's Pass 1 , including a new five and a half mile tunnel; the electric lighting of the tunnel, and the equipment of the necessary workshops at Otira. It is expected the whole work will be completed, and the electrified lines leady for operation in about eighteen months. Sir Arnold Gridley will leave for a short Visit to Australia towards the" end of September, and will return to [ England, via Colombo.