It was revealed in Parliament that an international quality inspection had found the coal imported by the Government in 19 shipments for the Lakvijaya Power Plant in Norochcholai to be of substandard quality.

This was disclosed by S. M. Marikkar, Chairman of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Infrastructure and Strategic Development, during a speech in Parliament in which he also tabled the relevant inspection reports.The MP said Bureau Veritas International in Australia had conducted third-party inspections of the coal shipments and that all 19 shipments imported into Sri Lanka had been found to be of substandard quality.According to the figures presented by the MP in Parliament, the quality values recorded for the 19 shipments were 5,420 for the first shipment, 5,607 for the second, 4,901 for the third, 5,398 for the fourth, 5,503 for the fifth, 5,011 for the sixth, 4,762 for the seventh, 4,776 for the eighth, 4,929 for the ninth, 4,959 for the tenth, 4,831 for the eleventh, 4,858 for the twelfth, 4,959 for the thirteenth, 4,897 for the fourteenth, 5,822 for the fifteenth, 4,871 for the sixteenth, 5,789 for the seventeenth, 5,340 for the eighteenth and 4,943 for the nineteenth.

He further said a report by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka had revealed that, due to the importation of substandard coal, the country had been unable to generate 300 megawatts of electricity required to meet demand between 1 January and 30 June, resulting in an additional expenditure of Rs. 8,536 million to meet the country’s electricity requirements.

He said the substandard coal imported into the country would have to be used until 12 September, and that the resulting loss was expected to be around Rs. 10 billion.

The MP further warned that the losses could increase further when damage caused to machinery and equipment was taken into account.