Despite claims, by energy sector experts, that Sri Lanka would lose between Rs. 10 billion and Rs. 14 billion annually, the government will go ahead with the controversial Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) of the 500 MW Coal Power Station in Sampur, Trincomalee.

Senior Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) engineers told The Island yesterday that a unit of electricity produced at Sampur would cost Rs. 18.00 as against Rs. 13.00 from the first coal powered plant at Norochcholai.

"Even Rs. 13.00 at Lak Wijeya in Norochcholai is high but if we could stick to that amount it would be better for the country in rupee terms," a senior official said.

He said that the country did not need to rush for a plant of this nature because already plans were underway to set up the second and third plants at Norochcholai. In other words, within the course of next year, the country would have an additional 600 MW.

Sri Lanka’s 65th Independence Day celebrations will be held on a grand scale at Fort Frederick in Trincomalee today. The celebrations will be held under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The theme of this year’s celebration is ‘A Glorious Motherland - A Flourishing Tomorrow’ (Asirimath Mawubimak - Isurumath Heta Dinak).

Over 2,500 invitees including members of the diplomatic corps and foreign embassies will attend the event. Mass Media and Information Ministry sources said over 3,000 personnel representing the three Armed Forces, Police, Civil Security Department, National Cadet Corps and National Youth Corps will take part in the National Day parade followed by a cultural pageant comprising 860 artistes belonging to 16 cultural groups.

In a massive rescue operation which lasted 20 hours on Saturday the Sri Lanka Navy rescued 138 persons of Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationalities whose overcrowded wooden vessel began to sink in the seas 50 nautical miles east of Oluvil.

All were brought to the Oluvil Fisheries Harbour and six of them, four males and two females, were rushed to the Akkaraipattu Base Hospital for treatment due to acute dehydration.

Navy spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya, who was in Trincomalee for preparations for today’s Independence Day celebrations, told The Island yesterday that the Police were in the process of interrogating them, but a problem existed due to the language barrier. He said that the Sri Lanka Navy had approached the relevant embassies early yesterday with a request for interpreters.

More than 401,980 persons or 110,204 families, have been affected by the heavy rains and floods in seven provinces.

Forty deaths have been recorded, while seven persons have gone missing.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) reported 4,191 houses had been destroyed and 21,705 damaged, while 39,191 persons, or 11,302 families, were accommodated in 242 evacuation centres.

The situation has returned to normal in the Galle and Hambantota districts, while in the Central Province, where 13 deaths were reported and seven missing, 9,114 persons have been affected with 1,570 persons from 476 families being sheltered in 22 evacuation centres in Matale (1,310) Kandy (208) and Nuwara-Eliya (52).