Blackouts to foil LTTE air attacks

Tourist hotels, high-rise buildings given tough new orders

Colombo City will be plunged into darkness at short notice on the orders of the Defence Ministry in a series of tough, new and unprecedented security measures during feared air attacks byTiger guerrillas.

Main among these security measures is a requirement that no back-up power plants is utilized to generate electricity when the Ceylon Electricity Board switches off supply.

They have been told that such blackouts by the CEB would follow any possible air attacks and they should await the resumption of supply without using their stand-by power generators.

They have been told that such blackouts by the CEB would follow any possible air attacks and they should await the resumption of supply without using their stand by power generators. The first occasion when such power supply was cut off was last Thursday night when two aircraft said to belong to the guerrilla air wing made a second attempt to bomb the Sri Lanka Air Force base at Katunayake.

The base adjoins the Bandaranaike International Airport and is separated only by the runway. Power supply was cut off for more than two hours by the Operations Command Colombo. The move badly affected some of the leading City hotels.

A five-star hotel manager who did not wish to be identified, said yesterday, "we could not tell our guests the reasons for the blackout."

"We lit candles during the period of the blackout and fear this will clearly discourage tourists from staying in our hotel," he said.
The manager of another five star hotel said they had to make arrangements to programme their lifts in such a way that they were powered by stand by generators while supply was not connected to power lights.

Tourist hotels have been told that their guests should be advised to follow a number of measures. They include drawing the curtains in their rooms after the hotels are alerted of an air attack. They have been told to make sure that vehicles do not either enter or leave their premises until the all-clear signal is given.

Tourist Board Chairman Renton de Alwis confirmed that the new directives had been issued as precautionary measures.