Colombo, July 21 (FN Agency) Gautam Adani visited Sri Lanka where he met with Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his powerful older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday.From Colombo, the billionaire businessman went on to visit Manner the proposed site of the renewable energy project on a Sri Lankan air force helicopter, according to Tamil Gardian News.’
Great Honour to have met H.E. President Ranil Wickremesinghe to discuss a fascinating set of projects in Sri Lanka including continued development of Colombo Port West Container Terminal, 500 MW wind project, and extending our renewal energy expertise to produce green Hydrogen’ the billionaire industrialist announced on Twitter.In December, the group submitted a proposal to the Board of Investments of Sri Lanka (BOI) and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to develop a USD $1 billion renewable wind power project in Mannar.The proposal would see the development of a 1,000 MW wind energy project in Mannar and has also expressed interest in a second wind energy project in Poonakary both situated in the Tamil homeland.The Adani group now disputed renewable energy project in the Tamil North-East, is not the company’s first venture on the island.Last year Adani Ports inked a deal worth a reported US$700 million to build a new container terminal in Colombo’s port.
The deal was controversial for several reasons. It came at a particularly difficult time for Indo-Lanka relations.The Sri Lankan cabinet had just decided to award a deal to a state-owned Chinese company for the second phase of the East Container Terminal (ECT) a project that Delhi has been keen on for several years.In 2021, and under a new Rajapaksa-led regime however, Sri Lanka unilaterally abandoned the deal, reportedly worth an estimated US$500 -700 million.The withdrawal of the ECT deal set off a cascade of concerns from New Delhi, with one diplomat claiming it would “naturally have a rupturing effect on bilateral relations”.In an apparent attempt to placate some of the consternation from India, Sri Lanka instead offered up the West Container Terminal (WCT). Adani inked the deal, which gave it a 51 per cent stake in the terminal partnership, while John Keells will hold 34 per cent and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority 15 per cent.