Supreme SAT–I not a Govt. property: Siyambalapitiya

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

Supreme SAT–I satellite, which made headlines recently, “is a BOI approved venture and a 100 per cent private investment of Ramasamy Muttusamy Maniwanan and Sanmuganathan Sudarshan.

It has no Sri Lankan Government investment what so ever,” Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology Ranjith Siyambalapitiya clarified in Parliament, in response to the question raised by Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe in par with standing order 23 (2). “SupremeSAT Ltd. is located on Level 33, West Tower, World Trade Centre, in Colombo. They have business partnerships with China Great Wall Industry Corporation and SINOSAT of China. Supreme SAT has submitted a project proposal that has three phases. The first stage took place in 2012 at a cost of US$ 4 million, second stage will be in 2013 at a cost of US$ 15 million, and the final stage will take place in 2015 using an investment of additional US$ 300 million.  “Based on the no objection letter given by Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka to establish an Earth station in the Pallekele Industrial Zone in Kandy, BOI has also approved the first and the second stages on 15th May 2012.

“During the first stage using China SAT 12, which is also identified as Supreme SAT-I, uplink and downlink transmission will take place. During the second stage, the Supreme SAT-II satellite will enhance the same, having constructed the said Earth Station in Pallekele. In 2015, they are looking at launching their own satellite,” added Minister Siyambalapitiya. He added that the Supreme SAT–I satellite is in an orbit that belongs to China and not using the 50E and 121.5E slot allocated to Sri Lanka by the International Telecommunication Union.