Saudi gives Rs 5,332M for Kaluganga project
Mohammed Rasooldeen in Riyadh
Saudi Arabia will fund Saudi Riyal 172 million (Rs. 5,332 million)
for the construction of a dam in Sri Lanka, which will be the highest
grant offered to the island since 1981.
A four-member delegation headed by Agriculture Development and
Agrarian Services Ministry Secretary A. Amarasekera arrived here Sunday
to prepare the draft agreement which would include the technical details
of the project. The agreement will be signed in Colombo. �This is the
seventh financial facility offered by the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD)
for infrastructure development in the country,� SFD Project Director
Abdullah Al Shedokhi told the Daily News.
|
From Saudi with love |
| * Seventh
Financial facility
* SFD gave SR 75M for Epilepsy
hospital
* SFD funds three project loans.
|
The project, he said, dubbed as Kaluganga project is to be
implemented by the Mahaweli Authority with co-funding by the Kuwait Fund
and the Sri Lankan Government.
The $ 113 million project will be shared by SFD-$ 46 million, Kuwait
Fund-$ 37 million and Sri Lanka Government-$ 30 million.
The water from Kaluganga will be diverted to areas in Morgahakande
and to cultivable areas in the North-East. In 2008, SFD provided Saudi
Riyal 75 million to construct the Epilepsy Hospital in Colombo and Rs 11
million to provide an extension to the Neuro-Trauma Centre at the
Colombo General Hospital.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia provided a concessional loan of Saudi Riyal 45
million to construct the Neuro-Trauma Centre at the Colombo General
Hospital in 2002 and the construction of the building was already
completed. The SFD has provided Sri Lanka with project loans on three
previous occasions.
It had offered Saudi Riyal 99.9 million for the second stage of the
Water Supply and Sewage project and gave SR 48.1 million for the
Mahaweli Ganga Development Project System B in 1981. Sri Lanka obtained
SR 85 million for the Mahaweli Ganga Development Project System B Left
Bank in 1984.
In 1985, under the Mahaweli Development Project , Sri Lanka built a
model town in Polonnaruwa where a large market was named as �Riyadh
Market�.
SFD had also granted SR 40 million for the construction of Kinniya
bridge and a road widening project. |
