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New UserSri Lanka to cancel Indian coal plant deal; proposes LNG instead
19 May 2016
Sri Lanka will cancel plans for a 500 megawatt Indian-built coal-fired power plant at its strategic eastern port city of Trincomalee and will instead opt for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant, a Sri Lankan cabinet minister said late on Tuesday.
Chandima Weerakkody, Sri Lanka's petroleum minister, said President Maithripala Sirisena told Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the decision at a meeting on Saturday during Sirisena's visit to India.
"We do not want to hurt India. So President Sirisena in his visit has offered an LNG plant instead of the coal plant," Weerakkody told Reuters. "This has been discussed at the highest level and there is consensus."
Sri Lanka is trying to increase its power generation capacity after a recent blackout that was the worst in 20 years, government officials say.
BMS Batagoda, the energy ministry secretary said the switch to LNG was proposed after ten years of opposition to a coal-fired power plant by the residents of Sampur, a village near Trincomalee, where India has already proposed to build South Asia's largest petroleum hub.
Area residents and environmental groups have resisted the coal power plant ever since it was originally proposed in 2006 due to worries about land clearance and pollution.
Source: TOI