ZURICH (Reuters) – ABB has won a $30 million order to upgrade a electricity transmission link in the Democratic Republic of Congo, part of the Swiss engineering company’s push into Africa, it said on Thursday.

ABB will carry out the partial upgrade of the Inga-Kolwezi high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power transmission link that transmits power from the Inga hydropower station on the Congo River to the mining district of Katanga in the southeast of the country.

The 1,700-km connection was built by ABB in 1982 and was at the time the world’s longest transmission line. The refurbishment will almost double the line’s power transmission capacity and improve reliability, ABB said.

Africa has been identified by ABB, which also makes industrial automation products, as one of its main drivers of growth.

(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields)