Treasure deposited into Moragahakanda dam

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday deposited treasure into the main dam of the Moragahakanda reservoir project.

The foundation stone for the Moragahakanda project, the biggest multi-functional irrigation project, was laid by President Sirisena in 2007 when he was the Minister of Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services Development.

When completed the project will provide irrigation facilities to 81,422 hectares in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, provide potable and industrial water supply to Anuradhapura and Trincomalee towns and generate electricity by hydropower while opening up 5,000 hectares of new land for agriculture development in Northern, North Central, Eastern and North Western provinces.

President Maithripala Sirisena places treasures into the Moragahakanda dam as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and other officials look on

The Project will generate 25MW hydro-power to the national grid. Increasing inland fish production, provision of potable and industrial water requirements, eco tourism and effective flood control are the other targets of the project.

A considerable portion of work of these projects has been finalised. About 60% of headworks of the Moragahakanda project has been finished and it is due to be completed in 2018.

The total development cost for both sites totals to approximately Rs. 48.145 billion (approximately $370 million) and is being carried out by Australian SMEC Holdings and Sinohydro of China. (Colombo Gazette)