There are plans afoot to turn an old power station along Río Chillar above Nerja into a museum and information centre.
Once a popular hiking area, Río Chillar (Nerja) remains closed because of the pandemic, although, hopefully, this will soon change.
In the meantime the Town Hall is working on a plan to acquire the old power station, San Modesto within the Parque natural de las Sierras Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama.
In order to achieve this, the Mayor José Alberto Armijo, has been meeting with the utility company, Endesa. His counterparts on the company’s side, (Director Southern Hydroelectric Production) Tomás Chica and the (General Manager of Power-Stations), Bernabé Rispal.
The negotiations also include buildings belonging to the power-station complex apart from the power house itself, which include dwellings.
Turning this into a tourist attraction requires funding, which the Town Hall hopes to obtain from the EU’s Feder via ISUD strategy (Integrated Sustainable Urban Development).
The representatives from Endesa have pledged to push along the necessary bureacratic process, “because these sort of projects are in the interest of the company.” The first step, he said, was the expiration of the lease for the land on which the installations stand and for it to return to public use.
When the Town Hall does finally obtain ownership of the installations, they want to turn it into a Centro de Interpretación (museum-cum-information centre), where visitors can learn about how the electricity grid arrived in Nerja through display boards and artifacts. As for the old dwellings for company workers, they will become offices for the control of access to upper Río Chillar.
If you are interested about learning more concerning the power station, local author Pablo Rojo had a book published in 2019 on hydroelectric power stations in Axarquía – the Río Chillar one is the only power station left in service.
(News: Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia – Photo: E. Cabezas)