Kerawalapitiya scheme to avert power crisis

COLOMBO: The Government has started work on a 300 megawatt thermal power station at Kerawalapitiya to head off a possible power crisis in 2008/2009, said Power and Energy Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne when he commissioned the Doloswalakanda rural electricity scheme in Nivitigala recently.

If the Kerawalapitiya plant failed to produce electricity by 2008, the Government will be reluctantly compelled to impose a 5 hour power cut daily, he said. Seneviratne said they were able to launch construction work at Kerawalapitiya on schedule due to the efficiency shown by the Ministry.

The country failed to add a sizeable additional electricity capacity to this national grid during the last decade and the people were facing the repercussions of such failure today.

People should eschew petty differences and shed personal dogmas when implementing development schemes for the country's progress.

It is people's unstinted support, co-operation and blessings which enabled the Ministry to start work on the Upper Kotmale and Norochcholai electricity schemes.

Today, Minister Arumugam Thondaman and P. Chandrasekaran were fully supporting the Upper Kotmale Project while Deputy Minister Abdul Bais and Neomal Perera were supporting the Norochcholai project.