Upper Kotmale commissioning before January end

Ridma Dissanayake

The Power and Energy Ministry has announced that around 92 percent of the construction in the Upper Kotmale hydro power plant has been completed.

Power generation will commence before the end of January 2012. This hydro power plant will add another 150 mega watts to the national grid.

The Upper Kotmale Power plant is the final and the largest hydro power plant in Sri Lanka. filling of water to the Upper Kotmale reservoir commenced on December 15. The reservoir was filled within 20 hours.

Sri Lankan and Japanese technological knowledge were used in the construction. The government had invested around Rs 8,548 million and the Japanese government had donated 37,817 million yen as a loan on this hydro power plant project.

This project will help development activities in Talawakelle.

New schools, sports grounds, community centres and new road systems will also be built parallel to the project.

Talawakelle will also be developed as a tourism zone, ministry sources added.

The Upper Kotmale reservoir was built by crossing the Kotmale Oya via a dam near Talawakelle city.

All measures are in place to build a special observation area to view St Clair's waterfall.

The Upper Kotmale hydro power plant will have two power generating machines with the capacity of 75 mega watts.

The first machine will start functioning in mid January 2012.

All measures are in place to start operating the second machine in April.