World's largest hydro-electricity company carries out construction work:

Multi-purpose Moragahakanda project gets under way next month

By Shirajiv Sirimane

The construction site

Heavy vehicles at work

The concrete mixing and casting complex

Chief Engineer, Sinohydro Corporation of China, Chen Jixian explains the project design

The much-awaited construction of the main dam of Sri Lanka's last major hydro power generating venture, Moragahakanda Project, will begin next month and would be completed in July 2016. The rock-filled dam would be 65 metres tall, 280 metres long and eight metres broad.

The excavation on the saddle dam site will be completed by the end of this month. This RCC dam would be completed by next February.

The world's largest hydro-electricity company, Sinohydro Corporation of China has undertake the construction work.

The company has also built the largest hydro power project in China. When completed, the tank would be the second largest tank ever built in Sri Lanka, after the Victoria Reservoir.

The project is multi-purpose and would not only generate 25MW of electricity to the national grid, but most importantly, would also provide a domestic and industrial water supply to the Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa and Matale districts for the development of agriculture in the North, East and North Western Provinces.

The project area is in the Laggala electorate of the Matale district in the Central Province. It also extends to some parts of the North Central Province.

The Moragahakanda and Kalu Ganga Development Project is the largest reservoir project to be taken up for development under the Mahaweli River Development Program and also includes the construction of the second reservoir across the Kalu Ganga.

Irrigation water

Some of the workers at the site Excavation under way

The main aim of the project is to provide irrigation water facilities to 81,442 hectares of land in the Dry Zone. Around 100,000 families, especially the agricultural and inland fishery communities, are expected to benefit from the project.

In addition, the project will help meet the potable and industrial water requirements of those living in the Anuradhapura and Trincomalee towns and generate electricity by hydro-power.

One of the key points the architects of the project wanted was to make the residents more knowledgeable of the project that is shaping up around them and also to give them a better and richer life style.

The direct benefits include an increased rice yield per hectare with an additional agricultural production of 109,000 tons annually. The net annual agricultural benefit will be US$ 27.7 million in financial terms. Inland fisheries too would benefit.The annual fuel cost savings with the hydro-power produced will be substantial.

Chief Engineer, Sinohydro Corporation of China, Chen Jixian said that the project so far has provided employment for 150 Sri Lankans and many sub-contracts too were provided during the initial stages. "We are happy to work with the local community as they are very co-orperative," he said.

"The people who started working with us were unskilled; today, with our training, they could gain employment anywhere in the world at high salaries," he said.

During the recent floods, Sinohydro went out of its way to provide cash handouts to the affected families.

Ahead of schedule

The Chinese engineers are happy with the progress made so far and are confident that they would complete the project ahead of schedule. Both the Mahaweli Authority and Irrigation Department have commended the progress of the project so far.

One of the highlights of the project is the planning and precise implementation. Sinohydro Corporation, which moved in last year, has already completed all infrastructure needed to complete the projects. Sinohydro had built a site office, bridges, roads, workshop and the residential complex, crushing plant, metal crusher and concrete mixing plant and all these had been completed in less than one year.

In addition, the company has also imported advanced heavy machinery some of which can be seen for the first time in Sri Lanka.One other plus point of the project is that workers' safety had never been compromised at any time and not a single major accident had been reported. The Sinohydro Corporation with operations in more than 58 countries is a Chinese state-owned venture established in 1955 and based in Beijing. It ranks 24th among the Top 225 International Contractors listed by the Engineering News Record. Currently, it has over 241 projects completed or under construction in 61 countries, with a total contract value around US$ 25.5 billion.

Happy with progress

Mahaweli Project Director, R.B. Tennakoon earlier said that they are very satisfied with the responsible manner in which the Sinohydro Corporation of China is carrying out its task. "They have already done preliminary studies and have also got the entire basic infrastructure in place to commence construction," he said.

According to Tennakoon, 1,581 families had to be relocated under this project which is currently taking place. "We have already resettled 221 families in better places and compensation too had ben paid to them," he said.

The relocation is to be completed by 2015. The total construction contract is worth US$ 252 million.