The situation has changed for India in Sri Lanka. The new president, Anura Kumara Dissayanake, who took office on Monday, September 23, has on his desk an embarrassing file for New Delhi. This is a market obtained by Gautam Adani, very close to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The Indian tycoon at the head of a gigantic industrial conglomerate achieved in February 2023, without a tender, the construction of two 450 MW wind farms in the northeast, on the island of Mannar and in the Pooneryn region, initially launched by the president. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to resign in July 2022.
This project, valued at $442 million, is opposed by residents and is the subject of an appeal filed by the bishop of the diocese of Mannar and three environmentalists before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. The plaintiffs denounce the environmental impact of wind turbines, question the allocation conditions and the lack of transparency, as well as the negotiated rates per kilowatt hour, considered prohibitive and which could aggravate the crisis. They ask the Supreme Court to recognize the illegality of the decision to award the project to Adani Green Energy.
As early as June 2022, Ceylon National Electricity Board Chairman Ferdinando informed the parliamentary committee on public enterprises that President Rajapaksa had confided in him that Narendra Modi had pressured him to award renewable energy projects to Adani. cluster. The man had to resign after making these comments.
Ignoring the controversy, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s successor Ranil Wickremesinghe in May gave the green light to a 20-year power purchase agreement that will provide Adani with 8.26 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).
Counterweight to China
The fate of the wind farm is now in the hands of the new president, who pledged during the campaign to cancel it. “corrupt agreement”which, according to him, threatens the energy sovereignty of the island. But it will not be done with Adani, whose name serves as a scarecrow for Sri Lanka’s far left.
The new leader inherits a country in ruins where Beijing and New Delhi have been waging a trade and influence war for years to influence this strategic island in the Indian Ocean. While Beijing multiplied contracts under Rajapaksa, contributing significantly to the country’s abysmal debt through luxury investments, India recovered its presence in the island state thanks to the crisis, offering the government its help in foreign currency in the short term and without power. import the essentials. estate.
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