Kotmale tunnel to carry water to power station

The Upper Kotmale tunnel will carry water from Kotmale River to the power station which is slated to add 150 MW of electricity annually to the National Grid.

The 12.9 km long Upper Kotmale tunnel , the longest tunnel in Sri Lanka,  has been declared open by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. It has a 5.2 metre diameter.

Funded by the government of Japan the Upper Kotmale project comes in five phases and almost 75 per cent of the work of the first and second phases is completed by now. Besides 79 per cent of the third phase, 57 per cent of the fourth phase and 54 per cent of the fifth phase are also over.

The Ceylon Electricity Board spends US$778.9 million on the project while the Japanese government has offered a loan of US$409 million.