Maputo  - Mozambique will spend a little over 2.2 billion dollars to build up its national power grid, reports said Tuesday.

The estimate is contained in a report on a government's feasibility study into the building of a 1,000-kilometre line linking up hydro-electric, coal- and gas-fired power stations in the centre and north with the main consuming areas in the south, Noticias newspaper reported.

Already a poor country, Mozambique's infrastructure was ravaged by a 16-year civil war ending in 1992. The government aims to get electricity to all parts of the country by
2015.

National electricity company EDM and local and international investors are expected to foot the cost of the north-south "backbone".

The lack of interconnectivity in the existing grid means parts of energy-rich Mozambique get their power from neighbour South Africa. The new 765-kilovolts line will allow Mozambique to export surplus power, Energy Minister Salvador Namburete said. (dpa)