The US$ 94,500 agreement will cover the first phase of building a 300 MW coal power plant in Norachcholai, Puttalam.
Funding for the coal plant is from a US$ 300 million Chinese soft loan on a design, build and transfer basis.
The contract has been awarded to the China National Machinery & Equipment Import & Export Corp, said de Silva.
A Chinese team was in Sri Lanka in July this year, to finalise the feasibility report for the coal plant that was on the cards since the early 1990s.
Sri Lanka must add around 150 MW to the national grid every year to meet the annual nine percent increase in demand.
But with no new power plants coming online for years the island has had to resort to thermal power as a quick fix to meet accumulated demand - at a prohibitive cost