Sri Lanka, India to sign power cable pact

Jun 30, 2009 - Xinhua

Sri Lanka and India would sign an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) to study the feasibility of laying an undersea cable to connect the power networks of the two countries, the presidential office said Tuesday in a statement.

According to the statement, the project will be looking at laying a cable in the Gulf of Mannar between Rameshwaram in India' s Tamil Nadu and Talaimannar on the left flank of the Mannar islands in Sri Lanka.

The underwater cable will be linked to Sri Lanka's network at Anuradhapura through an overhead line.

The underwater cable would help Sri Lanka to reduce the use of expensive fuels and import cheaper power from India's surplus, said the statement, adding that the power supply would allow the two countries to exchange about 500 MW of electricity in the short term.