The Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project is now nearing completion spending billions of rupees unnecessarily for contractor’s faults, official sources said.
Despite the Project being financed by the government of Iran, the Sri Lankan government has been compelled to bear approximately 80% of its cost. The development project is currently in its final phase.
The conclusion of construction activities of the project has been delayed by 1 year, due to the water leak in the main tunnel.
While 95% of the development project has so far been completed, another US$ 71 million is required for the completion of the remaining 5%.
A sum of over Rs.62 billion had been spent for the Multipurpose Development Project of Uma Oya as at 31 December 2017.
People had to face many hardships as a result of suddenly emerging water leakage. A sum of Rs.896.72 million had been spent for the affected people by local funds during the year 2017/.2018.
Out of that expenses a sum of Rs.744.54 million had been recovered from the contractor and further more a sum of Rs.152.19 million had to be recovered from the relevant company.
Further a sum of Rs.3.85 million had been spent to assess the damage of the affected houses due to the water leakage. However actions had not been taken to recover the said expenses from the contractor. as yet ,officials in charge of the project complained.
In 2008, the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project commenced with the assistance of the Export Development Bank of Iran.
At the first instance, it was proposed that the government of Iran will bear 85% of the total estimated cost of US$ 514 million of the development project.
However, with sanctions imposed on Iran, FARAB Energy and Water Project Company, the main contractor in this regard, failed to bear the cost of the Uma Oya project. This resulted in Iran limiting its fund disbursement to US$ 50 million.
Therefore, the government of Sri Lanka was compelled to bear a cost of US$ 464 million for the Uma Oya project.
(LI)