France-Lanka Financial Protocol signed

The Government of France signed a Financial Protocol with the Government of Sri Lanka to provide a soft loan of Euro 10 million (Rs. 1.2 billion) for the Greater Trincomalee Water Supply Scheme.

The objective of project is to rehabilitate and extended the existing water treatment plant in Kantale, the construction of a new raw water pumping station on the Mahaweli river and the laying of approximately 40 km of water transmission lines to fulfil the new needs arisen from tsunami resettlement programmes. This capacity improvement will enhance the number of service connections from 140,000 at present to 300,000.

The Government of France has already provided a soft loan of Euro 64 million (Rs. 7.6 billion) for Trincomalee Integrated Infrastructure Project (TIIP) which is aimed to rehabilitate tsunami damaged infrastructure of the district, inclusive of improving main water supply lines, and distributary lines which is complementary to this project.

Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Planning signed the Protocol on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka and the Ambassador for France Jean Bernard de Vaivare signed on behalf of the Government of France.