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The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed an agreement with Sri Lanka on Friday to grant a loan of US $ 251 million to support the country’s Upper Kotmale Hydropower Project (UKHP). “The loan will finance the civil works, procurement of materials and equipment, and consulting services necessary for the construction of a running-off, 150MW-hydroelectric power plant on the Kotmale River, a tributary of Mahaweli River, in the inland region of Sri Lanka,” a JBIC press release said. Under the project executed by the Ceylon Electricity Board, water of the Kotmale Oya will be diverted at an intake dam at Talawakelle into a headrace tunnel, which takes it 12.5 km to the powerhouse located about one kilometre downstream of the confluence of Pundal Oya and Kotmale Oya. In the meantime, water of six tributaries will also be diverted and used for generation. A news release issued by the Presidential Secretariat said that President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga authorized Treasury officials on March 19 to enter in to the Japanese Loan Agreement for the Upper Kotmale Project. It said the negotiations for the project had been initiated some years ago by President Kumaratunga as Minister of Finance during the last PA Government. Though the JBIC approved the loan, the Japanese Government suspended the grant of the loan in view of the opposition shown by certain environmental organizations. The repayment period of the loan is 40 years with a 10-year grace period. When originally planned in the mid nineties, the Upper Kotmale project was to generate 115 MW and the Kukule Ganga hydro power project 70MW.
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