Colombo: The Sri Lankan Cabinet has decided to grant a USD 17 million contract to a company using an Indian grant to set up roof-mounted solar panels for places of religious worship, the government said on Tuesday. This would be funded from the USD 100 million loan provided by the State Bank of India, according to a Cabinet note.
The company under focus had been selected from six bids received by different parties for the implementation of the project. Since the state power entity introduced a cost recovery tariff system last year as part of hard economic reforms in the bid to recover from the economic crisis, religious sites have been complaining about the high cost of monthly electricity bills. India announced the USD 100 million line of credit for projects in the solar energy sector in June 2021.
