Sri Lanka Plunges Into 10-Hour Daily Power Cut As Fuel Crisis Worsens
Sri Lanka Colombo, Mar 30 (PTI) The Sri Lankan government on Wednesday imposed a nationwide 10-hour daily power cut due to shortage of hydro-electricity triggered by non-availability of fuel.
Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented acute economic and energy crisis caused due to shortage of foreign exchange. A sudden rise in prices of key commodities and fuel shortage forced tens of thousands of people to queue for hours outside petrol filling stations. People are also facing long hours of power cuts daily.
All essentials are in short supply due to import restrictions forced by the forex crisis.
The daily power cuts in the island nation have been further extended Wednesday morning to 10 hours, officials said.
The country has been facing a seven-hour power outage since the beginning of the month.
“There is a shortage of 750 megawatt due to non availability of fuel to generate thermal power,” the chair of the Public Utilities Commission Janaka Ratnayaka said.
State-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has asked motorists not to queue outside fuel stations on Wednesday and Thursday to purchase diesel as it was unable to pay for a shipment that had arrived.
It was, however, not clear from where the shipment had arrived.
The CPC said the unloading of the ship would happen only on Friday.
Energy minister Gamini Lokuge said the government will make an urgent purchase of 6,000 metric tonnes of diesel from LIOC, the Lanka subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation.
“It will be used for emergency services and power generation,” he said.
Lokuge said a shipment of diesel under the Indian credit line was expected Thursday.
India recently announced to extend a USD 1 billion line of credit to Sri Lanka as part of its financial assistance to the country to deal with the economic crisis following a previous USD 500 billion line of credit in February to help it purchase petroleum products.
During his just-concluded visit to Colombo, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had assured India’s continued support in Sri Lanka’s economic recovery process.
(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)
An Appeal...
Dear Reader,
As you are no doubt aware, Swarajya is a media product that is directly dependent on support from its readers in the form of subscriptions. We do not have the muscle and backing of a large media conglomerate nor are we playing for the large advertisement sweep-stake.
Our business model is you and your subscription. And in challenging times like these, we need your support now more than ever.
We deliver over 10 - 15 high quality articles with expert insights and views. From 7AM in the morning to 10PM late night we operate to ensure you, the reader, get to see what is just right.
Becoming a Patron or a subscriber for as little as Rs 1200/year is the best way you can support our efforts.
