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Sampur power project not handled properly, may lead to diplomatic issue: Minister Ranawaka
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Technology, Research & Atomic Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka has contested claims by the Power and Energy Ministry Secretary M.M.C. Ferdinando. Minister Ranawaka was reacting to a news item titled “Sampur: Power Ministry Secretary denies former minister’s claims” which appeared in the Sunday Times- of June 23, 2013. He said :
The article says that the “Secretary Ferdinando contested the claim saying that Minister Ranawaka had not raised the issue previously and various committees had studied the issues.”
Mr Ranawaka said he was aware that the figures relating to technical parameters such as ‘heat rate’ and ‘O&M costs’ could not be discussed and agreed, before the completion of the Feasibility Study conducted by the Indian NTPC Company. However, some officers in the CEB and the Ministry had agreed with the Indian NTPC Company on ‘heat rate value’ and ‘O&M costs value’ even before submitting the Feasibility Study Report (FSR).
Mr Ranawaka said he had had sought the opinion of the CEB on those contents of the report. The CEB in response had sent a letter signed by the Chairman of the CEB, addressed to the Secretary, Ministry of Power and Energy, raising issues relating to Heat Rate, O&M costs and Return on Equity. The CEB letter had claimed that the approximate additional cost to the CEB by agreeing to values agreed by the above mentioned officers would be about 4.0 billion LKR per annum.
In view of the importance of the issues raised by the CEB, Minister Ranawaka had apprised President Mahinda Rajapaksa of these facts by a letter dated 20-09-2012. Through that letter, he had informed the President about the unprofessional way of handling the Sampur power project and had told him that it may lead to diplomatic level issues with our neighbour- India. As the situation deteriorated further, Minister Ranawaka had sent another letter to the President on January 1, 2013, highlighting the issues associated with the Sampur Power Project.
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