Chinese agency wins contract for Lanka mission close to Tamil Nadu coast

A CHINESE firm has received a contract to arrange hybrid wind and photo voltaic vitality tasks on three Sri Lankan islands off the northern Jaffna peninsula 45 km from Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu.
The Sri Lankan weekly Sunday Times reported that the US $12 million mission was awarded to Sinosar-Etechwin, and might be applied as a three way partnership with the state-owned Ceylon Electricity Board as a part of the Sri Lankan authorities’s Supporting Electricity Supply Reliability Improvement Project.
Etechwin is a subsidiary of the Chinese wind turbine producer Goldwind.
The Sunday Times report mentioned that India had lodged a robust protest with the Sri Lankan authorities on the contract to the Chinese firm days earlier than the Sri Lankan authorities cancelled the contract for the Eastern Container Terminal.
There was no instant remark from the Ministry of External Affairs. Sri Lankan sources mentioned the contract had been awarded after inviting worldwide bids and the Indian bid was not aggressive.
Asian Development Bank will fund the mission, which can come up on Delft, Nainativu and Analativu, three islands within the Palk Strait off Jaffna peninsula. Delft, the biggest of the three islands, is the closest to Rameswaram, which lies to the island’s south west.
Between the 2 is Kachchativu, the tiny island that India ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974. The waters round these islands are an space of contest and rivalry between Tamil Nadu and Jaffna fishers. The matter has been on the bilateral agenda for many years.Etechwin makes solar-wind built-in energy technology programs.
The contract to Sinosar/Etechwin was accepted by the Cabinet Standing Committee on Procurement on July 18, earlier than Sri Lanka’s cancellation of the tripartite settlement with India and Japan on the event and operation of the Eastern Container Terminal at Colombo Port.