Sri Lanka plans new railway for coal transportation

Apr 20, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government is planning to build a new railway track from Maho to Puttalam to transport coal from Trincomalee to Norochcholai through railway lines, the Power Minister said.



Power Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday said the ministry is currently in talks with the Railway Department to buy few engines. “We have conducted successful discussions with Railway Department to buy few railway engines and build a new railway line in the future,” Siyambalapitiya said.

Minister Siyambalapitiya however stated that they have already taken steps to get the whole coal requirement directly though Norochcholai jetty in a more transparent manner.

The CEB recently came under criticism over unplanned and costly coal purchases.

In the plant, basically the electricity is produced using steam turbine which is capable of producing 300MW per turbine. Coal is used as the fuel in the purpose of producing steam that will then be used to rotate the turbine in the speed of 3000 rpm.



A mother ship approximately 5 km at sea transports the coal to the Norochcholai jetty and each ship has the capacity to bring in about 65,000 Metric Tons of coal.

114 Metric tons of coal is needed per hour for a 300 MW power plant and a coal storage facility has been constructed with storage capacity for 3 months.

The ministry intends to save up to 400 Megawatts by 2020 through demand side management of power.