Broadlands project to add 35 MW to national grid

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Power and Energy Ministry will launch construction work tomorrow on the Broadlands Hydropower Project (BHP) which would add 35 MW to the national grid. When the project is completed it would generate 126 GW hours of power annually.

Power and Energy Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa will lay the foundation stone for the Broadlands project at Kithulgala tomorrow at 11.00 am, fulfilling another pledge in the Mahinda Chinthana, a Power and Energy Ministry spokesman told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

The Broadlands project is the last plant in the Laxapana cascade power station complex on the Kelani River system launched 50 years ago.

The run-of-the-river plant known as the Broadlands project is estimated to cost US$ 82 million, of which 85 percent is financed by China and the remaining 15 percent by the Government. With the launch of the Hydro Power plant, infrastructure facilities in the vicinity will be developed.

It has also been decided to develop the suburban area of the power plant to attract local and foreign tourists. The project would also generate direct and indirect employment, he said.

The spokesman said a 24-metre high and 114-metre long dam would be constructed across the Kelani River at Kithulgala and the power plant will be set up in Yatiyantota in the Kegalle district. The tunnel of the complex will be 3.5 kilometres long and 5.4 metres in diameter.

A smaller diversion, 48 metres long and 19 metres high will be built across the Kehelgamu Oya and water brought through an 850 metre-tunnel to the main reservoir. The main tunnel to the generators will be 3.2 kilometres long.