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PRESIDENT RAJAPAKSA SAYS HIS GOVERNMENT WOULD NOT DELAY DEVELOPMENT DUE TO OBSTACLES IN REFERENCE TO FORMER POSTPONEMENTS

By Walter Jayawardhana

President Mahinda Rajapaksa held a reception for the engineers and bankers of the People’s Republic of China who are investing in 455 million US Dollars to build the island nations first coal fired power plant at Norochcholai in the North West District of Puttalam.

“I really appreciate the hard work put in by the Chinese engineers and other workers so far and hope they would be able to finish it even before schedule,” said President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Temple Trees reception, where he hosted the Chinese team for a dinner.

According to official plans the first phase of the project with a capacity of 300 Mega Watts are scheduled to be over in 2011. The urgently needed project since the country has reached its limits in the production of hydro-power has been delayed over protests launched by the local population led by Catholic priests mostly worried over environment concerns.

The Kotmale and Keravalapitiya projects , also delayed over the years will be completed by the government, the President said when he did an inspection tour of the Norochcholai plant, 130 kilometers North of Colombo on the previous day. He said he was extremely grateful for the massive Chinese contribution. The President said this government was determined to go ahead with the development regardless of what ever the obstacles, in an obvious reference to the postponement of the projects due to agitations, during the previous years . The President said the coal fired plant would also reduce the cost of the electricity.

He also said Sri Lanka and the People’s Republic of China are celebrating 50 years friendship and Norochcholai was a clear monument that cordial relationship. The massive project when finished in 2015 will supply 900 Mega Watts of power to the national grid.

The Chinese government gave the long term loan to Sri Lanka at a time when the country’s opposition allegedly have approached European nations to cut aid to Sri Lanka.

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