Iran President to open Sri Lanka $514mn irrigation, hydro power project
COLOMBO – Iran President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi will on Wednesday (24) inaugurate the Uma Oya Project, an irrigation and hydropower complex that was designed and built by an Iranian engineering firm, and partly financed by the Government of Iran.
The project will irrigate 4,500 acres of new agricultural land, generate 290 Gigawatt hours of electricity and also provide drinking water, a government statement said.
Sri Lanka had awarded an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract to Iran’s FARAB engineering group to design and construct the 514 million dollar multipurpose project in 2010.
The project was funded until 2013 with a million US dollar credit from the Export Development Bank of Iran but international sanctions prevented the country from continuing financing, a government statement said.
The project continued with funding from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has since repaid 19.3 million dollars of the credit and 35.2 million remains outstanding.
The Uma Oya project has 120MW of hydropower generators, which can generate 290 Gigawatt hours of energy.
Each year 145 million cubic metres of water will be taken from Uma Oya to the Kirindi Oya river valley after generating electricity in an underground power station.
It will irrigate 1,500 hectares of existing agricultural and 4,500 hectares of new land in the Moneragala district, where crops can be cultivated in both the Maha and Yala seasons.
About 39 million cubic metres of water will be used for drinking and industrial purposes.
Two reservoirs built at Dyraaba and Puhulpola in the Uma Oya basin are connected by a 3.98-kilometre conveyance tunnel and water is taken through a 15.2-kilometre headrace tunnel to an underground power station. A tailrace tunnel takes water from the power station to the Kirindi Oya basin.
The project was originally expected to be completed in 2015 but was delayed due to financing issues and later water leakage into the headrace tunnel and the COVID-19 pandemic. The project completion date was extended to March 31, 2024, and the defect liability date to March 31, 2025.
-economynext.com
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