Beijing has now signed a contract with Male to set up solar power plants on 12 islands in the Maldives
Colombo:
China has suspended a project to install mixed energy plants on three of Sri Lanka’s islands, citing “security concerns” from a “third party”, amid reports of illegal activities. India raises concerns about their position.
In January, the Chinese company, Sino Soar Hybrid Technology, was awarded a contract to install a hybrid renewable energy system in the islands of Delft, Nagadeepa and Analthivu, off the coast of Jaffna, according to a report on the website. newsfirst.lk news was published yesterday.
Three small islands are located near Tamil Nadu.
Without naming India, the Chinese embassy there in a tweet on Wednesday confirmed that “China’s Hybrid Soar Technology, is being suspended for the construction of a Hybrid Energy system on 3 islands. north of Sri Lanka due to ‘security concerns’ from third parties”.
Instead, Beijing signed a contract with Male on November 29 to set up solar power plants on 12 islands in the Maldives.
As reported by newsfirst.lk, in early 2021, India filed a “strong objection” to Lanka over awarding a contract to a Chinese company to build renewable energy power plants in Delft, Nagadeepa and Analthivu.
This contract is part of the Power Supply Reliability Improvement Support Project, implemented by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Last month, the Lankan government awarded the state-run China Port Engineering Company the contract to develop the container terminal east of the Port of Colombo, months after it canceled a tripartite agreement with India and Japan. Ban to build a deep-water container port.
China is one of the biggest investors in various infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka under Beijing’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). But there has been widespread criticism, both domestically and internationally, and growing concern that China has lured Sri Lanka into a debt trap.
The island nation in 2017 handed over the strategically important Hambantota port to a Chinese state-owned company with a 99-year lease as a debt swap of up to $1.2 billion.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
