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Official letters show CEB Chairman was instructed to facilitate Adani projects
View(s):By Namini Wijedasa
India’s Adani Group intends to expand still further in Sri Lanka through Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) which has secured a total 500MW of wind and solar plants in Mannar and Pooneryn, documents show.
A letter sent in November last year by Vneet Jaain, AGEL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, to former Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle states that the company proposes to increase its footprints by setting up 1000MW of RE projects “in quick times [sic] to match its growing energy demand…”
Additionally, “AGEL shall set up strategic projects of about 5GW of wind power projects and 2GW of solar power projects in Sri Lanka for export of power to India through Cross Border Transmission Links to be established by us, enabling significant investment in Sri Lanka and opening new vistas of long-term source of export revenues as also enabling cross border trading of competitive energy at all ensuing times.”
A photo of Adani Group Chairman, Gautam Adani, with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa during his visit to Sri Lanka in October last year. The image was not released by the Presidential Media Division and was only made public through Mr Adani’s social media.
Separately, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with AGEL for the Mannar and Pooneryn projects states the company will “be allowed with prior approval and permission of the GoSL [Government of Sri Lanka] to explore floating solar and wind facilities in territorial waters of GoSL bordering Northern Province”.
Adani Ports already has a presence in the Colombo Port, with a controlling 51 percent shareholding in the West Container International Terminal (Pvt) Ltd.
Meanwhile, AGEL has now completed feasibility studies for its proposed wind and solar plants in Mannar and Pooneryn and is awaiting provisional approval (PA) from Sri Lanka’s Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA), officials said this week, adding that the projects are progressing as planned.
Before issuing the PA, however, the SLSEA Project Approval Committee (PAC) has asked the Power and Energy Ministry to confirm that there are no impediments to allocating the identified sites to AGEL.
This is because the SLSEA received numerous expressions of interest (EoI) from other investors for renewable energy (RE) projects in Mannar and Pooneryn after proposals were invited on Cabinet approval for plants of over 50MWs last year. The PAC has therefore sought clarification on whether the locations earmarked for Adani are now not available to investors who have already sent in EoIs.
AGEL’s proposal first got Cabinet approval on March 7 this year, just three months after its application. The MoU was signed a speedy four days later. But the project was in the pipeline for several months.
The envisaged investment in Mannar and Pooneryn is US$ 442mn for a 150MW solar power plant and 100MW wind power plant on 670 hectares in Pooneryn; and a 250MW wind power plant on 330 hectares in Mannar. The implementation timeframe is two years.
Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani was in Sri Lanka in October and met President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. A discussion was also held at the Shangri-La Hotel between Adani’s team, Namal Rajapaksa and some officials. And while none of the ministerial portfolios Namal held at the time were related to power and energy, he facilitated crucial aspects of the Adani visit, authoritative sources said.
Official documents show that former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa instructed the Ceylon Electricity Board’s then Chairman M.M.C. Ferdinando to recognize the project of M/s Adani Green Energy “as a proposal from Indian Government to the Government of Sri Lanka, as the both heads [sic] of the countries are in agreement to realise this investment in Sri Lanka, to meet the present day FDI crisis”.
This is recorded in a letter Mr Ferdinando wrote to former Treasury Secretary Attygalle on November 25 last year. It also states he was directed by President Rajapaksa to facilitate M/s Adani Green Energy to develop the 500MW wind and solar projects in Mannar and Pooneryn as Adani had “already agreed to invest substantial amount of FDI [foreign direct investment] in Sri Lanka”.
But Mr Ferdinando was forced to resign on June 13 after he told Parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprise that President Rajapaksa had summoned him in November 2021 and asked him to clear the Adani project as he was under pressure from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This disclosure–which he later withdrew–led to controversy in Sri Lanka and India, where the Adani Group’s close ties with Prime Minister Modi are criticised. On Twitter, President Rajapaksa categorically denied “authorisation to award this project to any specific person or entity”. He did not mention the Indian company.
Adani Group also issued a statement: “Our intent in investing in Sri Lanka is to address the needs of a valued neighbour. As a responsible corporate, we see this as a necessary part of the partnership that our two nations have always shared. We are clearly disappointed by the detraction that seems to have come about. The fact is that the issue has already been addressed by and within the Sri Lankan Government.”
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