China-built power plant resumes in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO -- A major power plant built by a Chinese company in Sri Lanka has restarted generation, relieving the country's power crisis, the company said on Tuesday.

Li Chaoyang, vice-president of the China Machinery Engineering Corporation, told Xinhua that the Chinese experts he brought from China and the local staff had fixed technical fault of the Norochcholai coal power plant constructed by his company.

Li said that the electricity produced by the coal power plant currently accounts for 17 percent of Sri Lanka's grid system.

The Norocholai power plant began construction in 2006 using loan from a Chinese bank with designed capacity of 900 mW by three phases.

The first 300 mW block was commissioned by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in March 2011 and handed over to the country's State-owned electricity board. After the completion on the latter stages in 2014, it would be the largest power plant in the country.

Sri Lanka has imposed power cuts over the past month after the coal power plant broke down and the authorities were unable to meet the electricity demand through hydro power owing to insufficient rain.