China offered to buy Norochcholai: Govt.

In a clear deviation from his chosen sphere, Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage wednesday took the field to launch vehement criticism of the strike action by the Opposition and took it upon himself to justify the electricity tariffs.

Dwelling extensively on the subsidies given by the Government, in particular for the power and energy industry, Aluthgamage let slip the fact that when the Norochcholai power plant kept breaking down, the Chinese Government had offered to cancel all contracts provided that the Sri Lankan Government transferred ownership to them and entered into a power-purchase agreement with the contractors.



“When the proposal was made to the Government, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) engineers strongly disagreed so the Government dismissed the idea. If that had happened we would have had to buy power at any rate they told us. However, due to the diligence of the Government, such drastic steps were averted,” he remarked.      

When completed the estimated cost of the power plant is US$ 1.2 billion.