Sri Lanka, India to sign $500 mln power deal

Sri Lanka is to sign a commercial agreement with India next week to build a 1000 MW coal power plant in Sampur, Trincomalee, a media release issued by the Ministry of Power and Energy said yesterday.

The coal power plant is a joint project of India and Sri Lanka. This will be the country's largest coal power plant and the total investment of the project is USD 500 million.

An agreement on power purchasing of the new coal power plant will also be signed between India and the Ceylon Electricity Board, the statement said.

The project will consist of two phases and the first phase is expected to be completed by 2012.Initial planning of the project has been completed and it is expected to commence the construction work of the coal power plant in November, the statement said.

Construction work of the coal power plant will be done by India's National Thermal Power Corporation and the Ceylon Electricity Board will monitor the engineering work of the project.