India's Adani group bags two mega power projects in Sri Lanka

New Delhi: India's Adani Group has inked an agreement for two mega power projects in Sri Lanka's Northern Province, six months after it bagged a strategic port terminal project in Colombo that the firm is now executing with majority stakes, The Hindu reported.

There is no official announcement or statement yet on the agreement to jointly execute renewable power projects in Mannar, on Sri Lanka's north-western coast, and Pooneryn, located just south of Jaffna Peninsula, from the Sri Lankan side, the Adani Group, or Indian authorities, raising questions in some quarters on the apparent lack of transparency in an international agreement. "While it was not announced, the CEB also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with India's Adani Green Energy Ltd," the Colombo-based Sunday Times

reported.

Revealing the details of the MoU, Sri Lanka's weekend newspaper TheSunday Morning said the two renewable energy projects, involving the Adani Group, were aimed at generating combined capacity of 500 MW, at a cost of $ 500 million.

Both projects are in the Northern Province, where New Delhi objected to a Chinese energy project last year, citing proximity to the Tamil

Nadu coast.

The agreement was inked on Friday, the same day that the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) agreed to set up a 100 MW solar power project in Sampur, in the eastern Trincomalee district.

The development comes months after Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani visited Sri Lanka and held talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on possible investments in the island nation.