Upper Kotmale: Public viewing facility extended

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE

The project committee of the Upper Kotmale Hydro Power Project has decided to extend the public viewing facility of the project for five more days in two stages.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa opened the water tunnel on thursday and the public were to be given the opportunity to view the tunnel until November 7.The project committee decided to extend the public viewing facility for another five days November 17 to 21.

Ceylon Electricity Board official said that there was an unprecedented response from the public to view the tunnel and over 5,000 people went inside the tunnel on the first day itself. Due to this we had to hire two additional buses as well," he said. "We have arranged buses for people to view the tunnel. The problem is, we can accommodate only a few vehicles inside the tunnel at a time, and due to this only a few people get the opportunity to go inside," he said.

In the meantime construction work too has to proceed.

The longest underground tunnel is 12.9 km in length with a diameter of 5.2 m. and would take water to the power house below.