Sri Lanka to add 600MW of power by 2014: president

Mar 22, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka will add another 600 MegaWatts of capacity to the national grid by 2014, ensuring uninterrupted 24-hour power supply, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said while commissioning the country's first coal power plant. The country is also seriously looking at alternative, clean sources of energy, not wanting to depend on a single fuel source, Power minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said.

The official commissioning of the first phase of coal power complex in Norochcholai, on the north-western coast, add 300 MW to the national grid

The power plant, built by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation with a 450 million US dollar loan from China’s EXIM Bank, will later be expanded to 900 MW.

Rajapaksa said power plants under construction or planned will add another 600MW of power, including the Broadlands hydro power plant and a coal power plant in north-eastern Trincomalee that is to be funded and built with Indian aid. "We have now given electricity to 87 percent of the people," Rajapaksa said. "There's no other country in the region without power cuts. We're able to provide 24-hour uninterrupted supply."

Power minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said the new 'Lakvijaya' coal power plant w