Courtesy Financial Express

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers chaired by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has revoked a decision announced in June last year to award a controversial 484 MW of wind power plants in Mannar and Pooneryn to Adani Green Energy SL Ltd.

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers chaired by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has revoked a decision announced by his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe in June last year to award a controversial 484 MW of wind power plants in Mannar and Pooneryn to Adani Green Energy SL Ltd, stated a report by DailyFT. 

On this, shares of Adani Green dropped by 1.19 per cent on an intraday level.

Earlier in June, the project was awarded by Ranil Wickremesinghe to Adani Green Energy and according to a report by PTI, the company was planning to invest more than $1 billion (Rs 83.5 billion) in wind energy projects in Sri Lanka. The investment was directed towards establishing two wind farms with a combined capacity of 484MW. To be located in the north of the country in the town of Mannar and the village of Pooneryn, the wind farms represent $740m of the investment. The project was to be completed by mid 2026. 

Later, the project was challenged on multiple grounds and concerns were raised over the arbitrary price of US cents 8.26 per kilowatt hour when the local bidders offered 4.88 cents.

It also faced opposition from many environmental organisations, including the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society and Environmental Foundation Ltd, opposed the project owing to deficiencies in the Environmental Impact Assessment and because Mannar is a critical habitat for migratory birds. The local community, represented by the Bishop of Mannar too, opposed the project because of the harm to local industries and livelihoods.

The DailyFT report maintained that the present President had, during the course of his election campaign, pledged to cancel the deal and call for international tenders to develop wind power in Sri Lanka. In line with the same, on 30th December, the Cabinet decided to revoke the cabinet decision dated 2024-05-06 numbered CP No. 24/0850/621/047 submitted by the then Minister of Power and Energy on ‘Proposal of Adani Green Energy SL Limited for the Development of 484 MW of Wind Power Plants in Mannar and Pooneryn”.

Biodiversity scientist Rohan Pethiyagoda, who for the last year fought tirelessly against the proposal award told the DailyFT, Everyone interested in environmental integrity and financial transparency will celebrate the fact that President Dissanayake has delivered on his promise to defeat this conspiracy to defraud the people of Sri Lanka.” 

Personally, I am delighted by this decision. But it is not enough. The Government must now release all the related files to the Bribery Commission and request a full investigation as to how this scam was perpetrated in the first place. Who was the mastermind behind it? Remember, the last Government agreed to buy electricity from Adani at a rate that was 70 per cent higher than the locally tendered price. Into whose pockets was that 70 per cent going? It added up to billions of dollars,” he said.