Dissanayake government reconsidering permission for Adani’s power project in Sri Lanka

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s new government led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Monday told the Supreme Court that it would reconsider the approval granted by the previous government to India’s Adani Group for a wind power project.

A five-member Supreme Court (SC) bench was told on behalf of the attorney general that the decision to review the project had been taken at a Cabinet meeting held on October 7.

The final decision of the new government would be conveyed after the installation of the new Cabinet after the November 14 parliamentary election, the court was told.

President Dissanayake in the run-up to the September 21 presidential election had pledged that his National People’s Power (NPP) alliance would annul the project.

The NPP claimed that the project posed a threat to Sri Lanka’s energy sector sovereignty and promised that it would be cancelled in the event of their victory.

The Adani Group was set to invest over $440 million in the 20-year agreement for the development of 484 megawatts of wind power in the northeastern regions of Mannar and Pooneryn.

The project faced fundamental rights litigation in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.

Petitioners have raised environmental concerns and lack of transparency in the bidding process to grant Adani Green Energy the go-ahead.

Petitioners have also argued that the agreed tariff of $0.0826 per kWh would be a loss to Sri Lanka and should be lowered to $0.005 per kWh.