Twenty-five
years after the Tamil Tigers blew up the first Kilinochchi electricity plant, a
replacement opens with a second northern station on the way.
By Pradeep
Seneviratne for Khabar South Asia in Colombo
October 30, 2012
M. Kamalanathan, a resident of Sri Lanka's northern
Jaffna peninsula, remembers how the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) plunged his town into darkness. The militant
group, which conducted a decades-long insurgency before finally being defeated
in 2009, destroyed Kilinochchi's power substation while he was a child.
"At that time, there were constant power
cuts," now 21-year-old Jaffna University Arts Faculty student Kamalanathan
told Khabar South Asia. "We used kerosene oil lamps for light. Kerosene
prices were also high due to lack of supplies from the south. It was a hard
time."
Even since the war ended, electricity supplies have
been far from stable. That, however, is set to change. With financial
assistance of Rs. 3200m ($24.6m) from Japan International Co-operation Agency
(JICA), the government of Sri Lanka has rebuilt the Kilinochchi substation and
it was commissioned September 25th, ending nearly 25 years of power cuts for
area residents.
Altogether, 121,000 electricity consumers will benefit
from this project.
"It took two years for construction work. Now,
there are high tension power lines between Vavuniya and Kilinochchi in the
north," General Manager of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) B.N.I.F.A.
Wickramasuriya said. "We undertook this task after the completion of
demining work by the Sri Lanka Army. Earlier, there were low voltage lines.
Now, there are high tension lines for uninterrupted power supply."
It is welcome news for Kamalanathan and other local
residents, who can barely remember a time when they could rely on stable
electricity.
"We hope things will change with the linking up
of the north with the country's national grid system," he told Khabar.
Locals bear brunt of Tigers' tactics
The LTTE destroyed the Kilinochchi substation October
25th, 1987 in retaliation for a military operation started by the Indian
Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka's embattled north. Subsequently, two
power plants supplied electricity to the Jaffna area, generating about 30mw of
electricity -- well short of the needed 50MW.
Power cuts lasted for several hours a day at that
time, Wickramasuriya, of CEB, recalls. On some days, the electricity supply was
limited to two or three hours only.
Even though the Norwegian government stepped in to
assist the area, donating 50 electricity generators, the shortages continued.
The militants appropriated the new electricity supplies, leaving ordinary
residents in the dark.
"Once they were installed in the area, they were
taken over by the LTTE for use at their camps," Wickramasuriya said.
"People did not benefit as a result."
A bright new day
Plans are in place to establish another substation in
the small northern town of Chunnakam, he said.
R. Jayasekaram, president of Jaffna Chamber of
Commerce, hailed the project, saying it would boost economic activities in the
north in the post-war era.
"It will help small- and medium-scale businessmen
to increase their operations. Industrialists will also benefit,"
Jayasekaram told Khabar. "That is a great achievement. We hope irregular
and informed power cuts will stop in the future."
