Adani Green Energy to set up wind power project in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka on Thursday announced that it has approved $442 million wind power project by Adani group's Adani Green Energy. This the first major foreign investment by cash strapped country.

Sri Lanka's Board of Investment said Adani Green Energy, part of the business empire of led by Gautam Adani, will set up two wind farms in the island's north, reported AFP.

"The total investment will reach $442 million and the two plants will be supplying power to the national grid by 2025", the BOI said in a statement.

The project comes after Sri Lanka awarded Adani a $700 million strategic port terminal project in Colombo in 2021.

The firm is building a 1.4-kilometre, 20-metre deep jetty right next to a Chinese-operated terminal at Colombo harbour, the only deep-sea container port between Dubai and Singapore.

Energy minister Kanchana Wijesekera said he met with Adani officials in Colombo on Wednesday to finalise the wind farm project.

"We expect the power plants to be commissioned by December 2024," he said.

This comes at a time when Adani Group is facing facing heat after US based short seller group Hindenburg Research accused the group accounting fraud and price manipulation.

After the release of Hindenburg's bombshell report on 24 January, the shares of Adani Group shares have lost 60% of their value.

However, Adani Group has denied all the allegations.

A Chinese firm was awarded a $12 million Asian Development Bank-funded project to build three wind farms on islands in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka in 2019, but it was cancelled after objections from New Delhi.

China is Sri Lanka's largest official lender, accounting for 52 percent of bilateral credit. Colombo is awaiting financial assurances from Beijing to unlock a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

The company's scrip was trading 5 per cent lower at ₹512.10 on BSE.